Lentil and Aubergine Bake

This is a great dish for entertaining vegetarian guests or you can use it as one of your weekend meat-free meals. It’ll take you over 1 ½ hours to make which is why is it not in my collection of weeknight meals. It is taken from Nadia Lim’s fresh start recipe book (Lentil Ragu + eggplant ‘lasagne’) but I have tweaked it slightly. If you want to make this recipe vegan just make it without the cheese – I have tried it and it is still very tasty, you still get plenty of protein from the lentils.

Lentils are a good source of protein but they also contain a decent amount of carbohydrates. They will provide you with nutrients such as Vitamin B1 and amino acids. (The recipe calls for puy or French green lentils but the first time I made it I couldn’t find either so used brown lentils and it tasted just as good.)

Spinach is full of folic acid, Vitamins B2, B6, E, Chromium, molybdenum, potassium and co-enzyme Q10.

Prep time 15-20 minutes. Cooking time 1hour 20 minutes.

Ingredients

Serves 6-8

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
  • 1 large celery stalk, diced
  • 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1 tsp dried thyme leaves (or 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 cup of puy or French green lentils
  • 1 heaped tbsp. of tomato paste
  • 3 x 400g cans of crushed tomatoes
  • 1 ½ cups of vegetable stock
  • 3 cups of spinach leaves, roughly chopped
  • Salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 large or 3 small aubergines, sliced into 1cm thick rounds
  • 2 tbsp. of olive oil
  • 130g ball / 1 cup of mozzarella, grated
  • 50g / ½ cup cheddar (or similar) cheese, grated
  • 50g / ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated

 

Method

  1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C
  2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and cook the onion, carrot and celery for around 10 minutes until soft
  3. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes
  4. Add the thyme, bay leaves, lentils, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and stock and bring to the boil, stirring. Reduce the heat and gently simmer for around 35 minutes, stirring often, until lentils are tender but still hold their shape and the liquid has significantly reduced and thickened.
  5. While this is cooking, prepare the aubergines:
    • Line two large oven trays with baking paper and brush with olive oil
    • Arrange the sliced aubergine on the trays, brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper
    • Bake for around 20 minutes or until soft and lightly browned.
  6. Once the lentil and tomato sauce is very thick, add the spinach and stir through until wilted. Season to taste with salt and pepper
  7. Arrange half of the aubergine slices in a single layer on the bottom of a large baking or casserole dish. Slightly overlap if necessary.
  8. Spread over half of the lentil and tomato sauce and sprinkle over half of the mozzarella
  9. Cover with another layer of the remaining eggplant and sprinkle over the cheddar, parmesan and remaining mozzarella
  10. Bake for around 20 minutes until cheese is melted and golden
  11. Allow to stand for 10 minutes before cutting and serving

Serve with a green salad.

This is the vegan version