If you’re following me on social media, you might have seen I’m doing a press and freezer clear-out!
A big bag of brown lentils have been lying in my press for too long, plus I had a hankering for lasagna and a sorry looking celeriac in my fridge. So along came this recipe.
The lentil ragu could be made meaty by simply replacing some or all of the lentils with the same amount of minced meat of your choice. I often do a 50:50 too.
If like me you have a bag of lentils lying around, try out these recipes to use up the rest of them!! Or these Stuffed Red Peppers which are incredible too.
Serves 6.
- 2 tsp oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 celery stalks, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 1 pepper, deseeded and diced
- 150g mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- 1 tin anchovies
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 x 400g tinned tomatoes
- 250g brown lentils
- 100g spinach, cabbage or any leafy green
- 1 celeriac, peeled and thinly sliced
- 250g ricotta
- 1 egg
- 100g cheese, grated (cheddar, mozzarella, manchego, parmesan)
- Heat the oil over a medium heat in a large saucepan.
- Add all the vegetables to the saucepan, cover with the lid and allow to soften fully for 5-8 minutes.
- Stir through the fennel seeds, anchovies and tomato paste. Allow to cool for a further 2 minutes.
- Add the tinned tomatoes and lentils with 400 ml of water (fill the tomato tin with water and stir to loosen any of the tomato contents). Bring the saucepan to a boil and return to a simmer for 30 minutes. Stir through the greens.
- Spread half the lentil mix over the base of a large ovenproof dish, cover this with the celeriac slices just like a lasagna, spread the remaining lentil mix over the celeriac, cover again with celeriac slices.
- For the cheesy topping: whisk the ricotta, egg and cheese together before spreading over the top of the dish.
- Bake in the oven at 200°C/180°C fan/400°F x 35-40 minutes or until a golden top is formed and the celeriac is soft through.
