Recipe: Lentil bolognese & Courgetti.
This is a staple evening meal for me, it’s really cheap to make, and works really well if you’re trying to eat fewer carbs and lower calorie meals in the evenings. It’s filling, warming, and super practical as cooked this way you can have a a lovely Sunday lunch cooked in about an hour, and then an evening meal in 15 mins over the next few days. That’s because this is based on a soup recipe. Chunky Puy Lentil and Vegetable soup, which is more like a stew. Make the stew/soup on a Sunday, have with some parmesan and chunky bread, then adapt into bolognese for the rest of the week! Mmm….
The soup:
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Servings: 4 generous
Nutritional info per serving: 167 kcal, 15g carbs, 12g fat, 1.5g protein
(not including cheese and bread)
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2-3 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped
- 2-3 leeks, white part only, thinly sliced
- 1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 400g tin of chopped plum tomatoes plus juice
- 200g Puy lentils
- 1 litre vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Melt the butter in a large heavy bottomed saucepan. Add the carrots, leeks, onion and garlic, stirring to coat with the butter. Add a healthy pinch of salt, cover and allow to cook for about 15 minutes until the vegetables are softened, stirring occasionally.
Add the chilli flakes, oregano, lentils, tomatoes, tomato puree and stock. Cover and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes or so, until the lentils are cooked. Taste and adjust seasoning if required. Ladle into heated bowls. Serve with chunky bread and parmesan or cheddar cheese on top. Keep the rest in the fridge…
Then, during the week:
Ingredients: (makes one portion)
- 1 tsp torn fresh basil
- 1 splash red wine
- 1 tsp tomato puree
- 300g courgette
- sea salt
- tiny amount of olive oil
That works out (roughly) nutritionally as: 303 kcal, 12g protein, 20g carbs, 20g fat.
Directions:
Ladle a portion into a pan, add a splash of red wine and the basil, plus a little water and the tomato puree to give it enough liquid to heat through.
Turn on the heat, bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
In the meantime, spiralise the courgette (I spent £12 on a spiraliser and I was sceptical at first but it takes up v little room and works real well with a steady hand and is so tasty!) season it, and as soon as the bolognese is heated through and
reduced a little, put a tiny spot of oil in a large flat pan, and for 2-4 minutes gently sautée the courgetti, moving it around the pan a lot – test it like you would spaghetti, you want it at the same ‘al dente’ feeling. If water starts cooking off it it’s definitely done. Pop that in a bowl, add the bolognese, and grate 20g of cheese on top.
Beautiful! Super tasty, comforting, healthy, low calorie and carb, and done in 15 mins.
Yummy!
