Susie Drage
Music, Art & Cookery
The Cookery Book
Red Lentil Ragu with Courgetti and Carrot Spaghetti


Red Lentil Ragu with Courgetti and Carrot Spaghetti
​
Serves 4 - 6
Preparation Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 40 mins
This is a Guest Recipe from the BBC with a few tweaks of my own.
A healthy tomato 'pasta' dish that makes full use of your spiralizer. This vegan-friendly supper is five of your five-a-day and will fill you to the brim and can be frozen.
Ingredients
-
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus 1 tsp
-
3 celery sticks, chopped (I used fine slicer of my Magimix)
-
2 carrots, chopped (I used fine slicer of my Magimix)
-
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
-
2 onions, finely chopped
-
140g button mushrooms from a 280g pack, quartered
-
500g pack dried red lentils
-
500g jar of passata
-
1 x vegetable bouillon or organic Vegetable Stock Cube
-
500 ml boiling water
-
1 teaspoon dried oregano
-
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
-
1-2 large courgettes, cut into noodles with a spiraliser, julienne peeler or knife
-
1 large carrot, spiralised
Method
-
Heat the 2 tbsp oil in a large sauté pan.
-
Add the celery, carrots, garlic and onions, and fry for 4-5 mins over a high heat to soften and start to colour.
-
Add the mushrooms and fry for 2 mins more.
-
Add about 300 ml of boiling water.
-
Stir in the lentils, passata, bouillon, oregano and balsamic vinegar.
-
Cover the pan and leave to simmer for 30 - 45 mins until the lentils are tender and pulpy. Check occasionally and stir to make sure the mixture isn’t sticking to the bottom of the pan; if it does, add a drop of water. (I found I needed to add another 200 ml)
-
To serve, heat the remaining oil in a separate frying pan, add the spiralised courgette and carrot and stir-fry briefly to soften and warm through.
-
Serve half the ragu with the courgetti and chill the rest to eat on another day. Can be frozen for up to 3 months.