Mushroom, Spring Onion, Apple and Lentil Bake

Delicious served with a jacket potato or green salad.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 200g red or green lentils
• 100g mushrooms of any kind, roughly chopped
• 100g greens - pak choi, chard, spinach etc
• 2 apples, washed, cored and grated
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed,
• Juice and rind of 1 lemon (optional)
• 15ml olive or sunflower oil
• 1 litre water 1 vegetable stock cube (optional)
• 1 tablespoon fresh herbs, chopped (e.g. parsley, thyme leaves, marjoram, oregano)
• 100g grated Cheddar
• A handful of pine nuts or sesame seeds (topping - optional)
• Salt & pepper to taste
•  

Instructions

1. Gently heat some oil in a large pan.
2. Saute the mushrooms until they start to get juicy, then spread them across the bottom of a baking dish.
3. Meantime, roughly chop and sweat the greens down in a centimetre or so of water in a heavy bottomed lidded saucepan.
4. Heat some more oil and add the onions and garlic and stir to coat with the oil. Cover and saute for 5 minutes, until starting to soften.
5. Add the lentils and stir to coat with the oil. Cook for 2 minutes.
6. Add 1/4 of the water. It will spit and hiss a bit, because the pan is hot. Stir well and simmer gently until most of the water has boiled off.
7. Add the lemon juice & rind. Then add another 1/4 of the water. Stir well and simmer again.
8. If using, mix the stock cube with the rest of the water. Adding it earlier seems to make the lentils take longer to cook.
9. Keep using the water this way, adding a little more if needed, until the lentils are soft and mushy. This takes 20-30 minutes.
10. Taste & season with salt and pepper. BEWARE adding too much water - sloppy bake is NOT great!
11. Mix in the greens.
12. Now mix in 2/3 of the cheese with the lentils. This helps keep the bake moist.
13. Grate in the apples and stir well.
14. Put the lentil mixture into an oven-proof dish on top of the mushrooms, top with cheese if you're using it, and then pine nuts or seeds.
15. Bake at 200° C for about 30 minutes, or until the top is bubbling and lightly browned.

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