Puy lentils - 2 ways

Last week, I talked about red lentils and this time I'm cooking with Puy lentils - a type of green lentil with a slightly speckled appearance and a lovely, nutty taste. You can buy them dried or in cans and, unlike beans which have a better texture and flavour if you cook them yourself from dried rather than using cans, the two are interchangeable - the only real difference being that while dried Puy lentils take about 30 minutes to become tender, canned are ready to heat through and use straightaway.

Here, I've made a lovely Puy lentil sauce that can be used just as it is, or you can cook it for a bit longer and turn it into brilliant lentil rissoles (below) that make a great lunch dish. The rich sauce is good served with griddled turkey as here, but also lovely with chicken, grilled white fish fillets, goat's cheese or even a fried egg.

Puy lentil sauce with griddled turkey

350g dried puy lentils
1 leek
1 garlic clove, crushed
half a small red chilli, deseeded
900ml hot stock (vegetable or chicken)
half tbsp ground coriander
half tbsp sumac (see previous post: https://a-cooks-plot.blogspot.com/2018/08/chillies-sumac-and-thyme.html)
juice of a lime
handful fresh parsley, chopped
2 Quick-Cook Turkey Steaks (I used Sainsbury's)

Put the lentils in a wide-based pan with the leek, the garlic, chilli and the stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer with the lid on until the lentils are almost tender (about 25 mins). Stir in the coriander, sumac and lime juice and simmer for another 5 mins until the lentils are tender. Stir in the parsley. For the turkey, simply season the steaks and cook on a very hot griddle with a little olive oil for about 4 mins, turning once.

Serves 4

Puy lentil rissoles

1 quantity of Puy Lentil Sauce (above)
handful of black olives, chopped
1 large egg, beaten

Make up the recipe above, but cook for 40 mins. There should be no water left at this stage and the lentils should be very tender. Add the sumac etc, cook for 5 mins, stir in the egg, then mash with a potato masher. Press the chopped olives into the mixture randomly. Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan until very hot and use an ice-cream scoop to put three small heaps of the mixture into the pan. Press them down a little with a spatula. Cook until nicely browned on both sides, then repeat with the rest of the mixture. Serve with a tomato sauce (my Extra-Special Tomato Sauce is ideal, reduced down to make it nice and thick: https://a-cooks-plot.blogspot.com/2018/05/extra-special-tomato-sauce.html)

Makes 12

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