I have been told by quite a few people now that I am the female version of Yotam Lenghi. While I am humbled by the compliment I honestly don’t think my recipes are as long as his. I have been given his books as gifts and his recipes are way longer and more complicated than mine. My friend who keeps calling me Yotama asked me if I can come up with a quick-and-easy dinner recipe for the whole family, that's healthy and tasty but without lots of ingredients, and can I please keep the spices to a minimum because she wants to make it for her grandkids.
I took on the challenge! And not only did I come up with a SUPER QUICK, EASY, TASTY DINNER FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY, but it’s easy on the wallet too.
It even passed the fussy eater taste test with my family.
I honestly wasn’t expecting it to be so tasty. As you know, I love my spices so this was a real challenge for me. I went to visit my old recipe book, the one that’s 100 years old and all the recipes are handwritten. I still haven’t typed up the recipes, I just love the nostalgia I feel when I look at it and the notes I made whether the kids liked it, if it was tasty, if it needed more or less of something and I would even rate them and give them stars (yep I’m a nerd through and through). Anyhow, I couldn’t really find anything so I just decided to go to the pantry and just see what I can do with what I’ve got and that’s how I came up with the speedy one-pot lentil and pasta dinner.
Like I said, everyone liked it and even my youngest who is super fussy liked it. Well, there was one complaint (there is always ONE) my partner, while he did say it was delicious said it could use more veggies so if you would like to add more veggies go for it.
Ingredients
1 litre (4 cups) vegetable stock
500 gr spaghetti
2 punnets ( 400gr) cherry tomatoes, halved
4 heaped teaspoons Italian herbs
5 cloves garlic crushed
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 can (425g) lentils, drained and rinsed.
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives
4 tablespoons olive oil
120 grams baby spinach leaves
1 cup grated parmesan cheese or vegan cheese
Pepper according to taste
Method
Bring vegetable stock to the boil in a lidded large pot over high heat. Remove lid, add pasta and lentils to the pot and cover with the lid. Turn the pasta regularly to stop the contents from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a shallow frying pan and fry the garlic until lightly golden (about one minute), throw in the tomatoes, the olives, the salt, the pepper and Italian herbs and stir until well combined (about four minutes). Add the herbed tomatoes and olives into the pasta and stir to combine.
Once the liquid has almost evaporated, remove the pot from the heat, stir in the spinach and grated parmesan.
I love hearing from you! Let me know how it went and feel free to spread the word/passion/love, the more the merrier!
With love and gratitude
Nava
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