, How to Video, Step by step

Warm roasted carrots with lentils and feta

The delicious combination of sweet roasted carrots with wholesome lentils creates an easy meat-free dish.

Mark Stower, Director of Food and Service

Preparation Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 25 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

400g whole baby carrots
1tsp cumin seeds
30ml olive oil
Sea salt and cracked black pepper, to season
200g Puy lentils, cooked
100g feta cheese, crumbled
Fresh chervil or fresh herbs of your choice

Method

Step 1

Prepare the carrots by washing and cut any larger carrots in half lengthways.
Step 2

Spread the carrots evenly onto a baking tray, sprinkle over the cumin seeds and half the olive oil and mix. Season with salt and pepper.
Step 3

Roast carrots in a preheated oven, 180°C/ gas mark 4 for approx. 20 - 25 minutes, or until they are tender.
Step 4

Whilst the carrots are roasting, cook the Puy lentils as per instructions on packet.
Step 5

Remove carrots from the oven and arrange on the individual serving plates. Sprinkle the plated carrots with the cooked lentils and crumbled feta.
Step 6

Drizzle over the remaining olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Step 7

Garnish with fresh herbs.

Nutrition

Mark’s delicious recipe this month demonstrates how easy and quick it can be to prepare a healthy and tasty plant-based meal.

Lentils are one of the pulses or legumes – edible seeds grown in pods – that together with chickpeas and various beans make a great basis for more sustainable, plant-based meals and a good alternative to meat.

There are all sorts of lentils of different size and colour. Whilst some, like red lentils, are split and cook quickly, other varieties such as these Puy lentils are whole and require longer cooking but keep their shape and firm texture and are ideal for adding to salads.

Puy lentils are green, small, and mottled. They originate from the region of Puy-en-Velay in the Auvergne in Southern France and have a protected designation of origin, meaning that they must be grown and harvested under specific conditions, including without pesticides and irrigation.

It is said that these lentils were introduced to the region by the Romans over two thousand years ago and that their eating qualities derive from the area’s volcanic soil and dry microclimate.

Lentils and other pulses all contribute to your daily vegetable intake but, despite providing plenty of protein, fibre, iron, and zinc, they only count once to your 5 A Day total, irrespective of the serving size – this is because they don’t contain the same mix of nutrients provided by other vegetables and fruit.

Nevertheless, the combination of carrots and lentils provides just over two of your 5 A Day portions and the dish contains plenty of other important nutrients, including added calcium from the feta cheese.

DR JULIET GRAY