This is my perfect comfort food! I love every detail in this dish: the lentils, the cabanossi (feel free to omit these for a vegetarian version, it’s still great then) and roasted beetroots, which is the best way to make them. Refined with a decent portion of red wine, pureed tomatoes, carrot and celeriac, oregano, smoked paprika (a great ingredients, because it gives dishes an extraordinary taste) and chilli.
Beluga lentils are beautiful, as they look like beluga caviar: small and black. But they taste also very delicious and they keep their shape very well while cooking. When I cook them they still need to be a bit al dente. The ingredients in this dish will melt together. The sauce will be very thick and surrounds the ingredients. A carbon hydrated side dish isn’t needed here, as you can just eat it by the spoon out of the pot.
As we spent 6 weeks in Asia, I’m not yet sick of winter vegetables. A real advantage (of course I’m looking forward to fresh spring vegetables)! This autumn we became huge fans of beetroots. In the past I’ve just known beetroots as salad, which then I already loved! In the mean time we tried a lot of recipes with beetroots and were delighted by all of them. But best is still to roast them in the oven with olive oil and salt, as I made it for this recipe.
One year ago: Oat Florentines
Beluga Lentils with Cabanossi and Beetroots
Serves 2-3
Ingredients:
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1 small onion, peeled
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1 garlic clove, peeled
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100 g beluga lentils
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olive oil
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150 ml dry red wine
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100 g pureed tomatoes
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2 carrots, peeled
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1/2 small celeriac, peeled
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1 tsp dried oregano (or more if you use fresh)
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10 cm piece cabanossi
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1/2 tsp smoked paprika
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1/2 tsp medium spicy chilli
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salt & pepper
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1 large beetroot, peeled (use those thin rubber gloves)
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olive oil
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1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
Preheat the oven to 180° C.
Finely chop the garlic clove. Chop the onion. Dice the carrots and the celeriac into 1,5 cm pieces.
Heat some olive oil in a medium large pot. Add the garlic and onion, when hot. Sautee them at medium heat, after 3 minutes add the lentils. Give it a stir and add the red wine. Let it cook, until half the wine is reduced, then add the tomato puree. Add the diced vegetables and the oregano (add fresh one in the end). Let it simmer at small heat for about 30-40 minutes. Add some waters if necessary (the lentils will soak up quite an amount of water).
Cut the beetroot into 1,5 cm sticks. Combine them in a baking dish with some olive oil and the coarse sea salt. Bake them for about 20 minutes until they are done.
Take a look at the lentils every now and then, to check if they need some water. I just added about 50 ml in total. In the end it should be a more a thick sauce and not so much sauce at all!
Cut the cabanossi lengthwise in quarters Then dice it up in equal pieces.
When the lentils are done, but still a bit firm to the bite (al dente), remove it from the heat and add the cabanossi. Season with the smoked paprika, the chilli and salt and pepper.
Serve the lentils, topped with the roasted beetroot sticks.
