Lentil Bolognaise Sauce

I'll admit it: some nights it's too hard to make something healthy for dinner.

Even with meal planning there are days when I feel low, sick or just not in the mood to cook. It's times like these that my large chest freezer comes in handy - it's full of home-made bits and pieces that are ready to eat with minimal effort involved.

I keep a list of things that are in the freezer and work them into my weekly meal plans, and often I make extra of something in order to have portions on hand - it keeps the stock rotating nicely and I know that everything is home-made and preservative free. Currently in the freezer are home made beef and red-wine pies, lamb and lentil lasagne, sesame chicken balls, beef and bean casserole, barley and chorizo risotto and paprika beef stew. Some dishes actually taste better once they've been frozen - think of a rich gravy beef stew eaten a day after it was made; well, it turns out freezing does the same thing.

Sometimes I find myself wanting to cook even when dinner has already been planned and prepared. This is usually when I make some muffins or scones, but the other day I decided to make a lentil bolognaise - I have planned to make baked sweet potato with bolognaise topping and lentil enchiladas over the coming weeks. I figured I may as well make a big batch to freeze, so when those meals come around I will have minimal work to do.

Unfortunately, often-times when I'm cooking I neglect to take measurements, which makes typing up the recipe later a bit of a guessing game. I'm pretty sure I'm able to report the method and ingredients accurately, but your mileage may vary.

You can also easily convert this recipe to a Mexican flavour profile quite easily by adding jalapeños, red and green capsicum, some cumin and fresh coriander. Eating less meat is really easy and possible with legumes!

For Vegetarians and Vegans

This recipe is not strictly vegetarian as I use anchovy paste (glutimates = umami), but that can easily be replaced by soaking dried shitake mushrooms in hot water for 30 mins and using that water in the dish, and slicing the refreshed mushrooms thinly and adding those also. Seaweed is also a good substitute that has natural glutimates, or in a pinch some chopped olives added to the dish would work fine too.

Basic Ingredients - just add celery, carrot and onion

A great flavour base

Umami making goodness

Recipe

Makes 6 - 8 serves

Cooking time 40 mins

Ingredients

4 large carrots, finely chopped

half a bunch of celery (about 6 stalks) finely chopped

2 brown onions, roughly chopped

olive oil

2 teaspoons anchovy paste (or vegetarian substitute - see note above)

140 grams tomato paste

400 gram can of Italian tomatoes

500 ml tomato passata

1 1/2 cup of green lentils

1 1/2 cup red lentils

water

salt 

pepper

Method

In a large heavy based saucepan heat a tablespoon of olive oil and fry the onion and celery in batches.

Add the anchovy paste and stir fry for a minute, then add the tomato paste and fry for another minute.

Add the carrots and stir though. Add the canned tomatoes, the tomato passata and a cup of water to the pot. Add the green lentils, making sure there is enough liquid to cover the ingredients - if there is not, add more water. Bring pan to the boil and simmer for 20 mins, stirring occasionally. 

Add the red lentils to the pot along with a half a cup of water and bring it back to a slow boil for another 20 mins. Taste the sauce and season as needed.

Once cool, portion out bolognaise sauce into freezer containers and label. 

Some serving ideas for this sauce are 

• spooned over baked sweet potato
• layered in a lasagne with fresh spinach and ricotta
• served over some wholemeal pasta
• made into enchiladas
• eaten for a savoury breakfast with toast and baked eggs
• scooped up with baked tortilla chips
• served on polenta
• made into a cottage pie
• . . . . the list goes on . . . 

Each container has enough for two serves

Ready for the freezer

Sweet Pork Skewers with Roast Veg

Last week I had some pork cubes in the freezer that I needed to use, so I looked in my magazines for an idea and came across a pork chop recipe that looked adaptable.

Link to recipe here: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/31245/glazed+orange+pork+with+sweet+potato+and+parsnip

It calls for the pork to be marinated in a mix of orange marmalade and mustard for 4 hours, or overnight. I decided to have a go, and while everything turned out well and Mr. Oso really enjoyed it, I found myself not liking it all that much. I think the next time I do something like this I'll stick to a more Chinese-styled plum sauce with soy and crushed garlic marinade, or with an apple cider brine.

Anyhow, the pork was very lean, and a great source of protein, even though it had the added sugar of the marmalade. Speaking of which, the recipe called for the use of a whole small jar, and I halved that amount and just added water to make the marinade cover the meat. It's always a good thing to look at something and say "I don't need to use that amount, I can cut it and substitute and end up with less sugar/salt in my meal".

Because I'm working with an electric stove top and oven it is hard to get a nice grilled result, but I managed to make a decent product all the same. I browned the skewers in a cast iron pot with some very hot rice-bran oil and then placed them in a ceramic oven dish and into the hot oven. After about 20 mins in the oven I took out the ceramic dish, drained the meat juices from the bottom and turned the oven to the 'Grill' function. I then laid the skewers across the top of the baking dish so that they were sitting rotisserie style and grilled them from above, turning over a few times.

With the marinade and meat juices from baking I de-glazed the cast iron pot and made a thick sauce to go with the skewers. I strained it to get rid of the rind from the marmalade and the mustard seeds and served it spooned over the vegetables and pork.

For a side I grabbed what vegetables were in the fridge, which turned out to be sweet potato, brussels sprouts and French beans. Since the oven was on anyway I roasted them in a splash of olive oil and salt. The brussels sprouts were my favourite thing out of this meal. The green beans were really lovely roasted also.