RECIPES

Red lentils and sun-dried tomatoes with blue cheese baked in savoy cabbage

Recently with dear friend Space, for drinks and catch up, we got hungry!
"The cupboard is bare" she cried. "All I've got is this cabbage, what can you do with that?", shoving it lovingly at me with a big grin on her face. Well since you ask, let me try out this recipe for you.

The recipe is now written with great love, respect and honour, for without your support this web site would have been much more complicated to achieve, my life very much less. Thank you dear one for believing in me.

This recipe is good for using pre-cooked lentils; extra lentil mix made while making this dish can be used as described.
See Kitchen > Basic recipes and ideas.

Ingredients

• 1 spring or savoy cabbage
• 100-150 grams red lentils
• 1-2 medium onions~ chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic~ crushed
• 100 grams sunflower~ finely ground
• 25-50 grams whole hemp seed~ finely ground
• 200 grams sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 tin of tomatoes~ chopped
• 150 grams blue cheese (optional)
• 300-400 ml of stock or water
• spices: 2-3 teaspoon of ground fennel and cumin, half-1 teaspoon chili powder
• salt and pepper
• Oil for frying

• 1 medium size pie dish with lid
• 1 each medium and small saucepan with lid to par-cook (blanch) the cabbage and prepare the lentils
• oven heated to 200oC
• baking tray for the potatoes

Method

• Fry the onion and garlic in the oil until translucent and golden, mix in the spices and infuse for a few moments on a very low heat, so not to burn them.
• Stir in the tomatoes and half fill the can with some of the stock or water to rinse it out, add to the pan, simmering gently for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally, in the meantime.
• Fill and bring to the boil the medium size pan with 2-3 fingers depth of water for the blanching the cabbage.
• Remove any unusable leaves from the cabbage, slice it in half then cut out the stem in its natural V shape, so the leaves separate after blanching. Give it a wash at this point.
• Place the halves, stem down in the boiling water with the lid on for 3-5 minutes, the whole cabbage needn’t be totally immersed in water, the intention is to soften the stems.
• Returning to the tomato sauce, give it a stir and check for salt and pepper, put one third of the sauce into a small bowl, for the sauce around the pie later.
• Add the red lentils to the remaining sauce in the pan and add the rest of the water, simmer for about 20 minutes stirring regularly.
• This is a good point turn on the oven, and get the potatoes ready, as they take longer to cook.
• Drain the cabbage and immerse in cold water for a few seconds, let it drain again, it should now be cold enough to pull apart.
• Check the lentils, if they start to look dry after 10 minutes or so add a little more water, watch for the lentils to puff up as they become cooked; the juices absorbed but still a bite to them, you can see a small red dot in the centre, still slightly raw, the mix will firm up further still once in the oven, season to taste.
• Arrange the cabbage leaves around the bottom and sides of the pie dish, "flower petal like". Place the filling in the centre and if using cheese sprinkle on top, fold the leaves into the centre to form the cover of the pie, pressing it down slightly.
• Pour the saved tomato sauce around the sides, cover and place in the preheated oven for 40 minutes.
• Once cooked, leave to settle for a few minutes before cutting into 4-6 wedges, lift out onto the serving plate.

Leftovers:

Will keep overnight in the fridge. A soup is a likely option, the filling heated up with a glass of water added, a tasty soup in minutes. The cabbage chopped to make bubble and squeak, served along side the soup with a green salad.
See Recipes > Lunches snacks and salads > Carrot Parsnip Bubble and Squeak