Red lentils give a lovely texture as a base to a stew or curry. They are inexpensive and require no soaking so don’t take long to cook.

I served this with fragranced rice but it works just as well with flat breads. I’ll post a recipe for 2-ingredient flat breads soon. I’ve just realised I haven’t posted a recipe for fragranced rice either,I’d best get on that.

Whatever you do, don’t throw away the chickpea water. It’s so useful as an egg white alternative in recipes like this no-egg meringue.

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 400g chopped tomatoes, tinned
• 240g chickpeas, tinned and drained (save the water, aquafaba, from the tin to use as an egg white replacement)
• 650g vegetable stock
• 1 chilli, chopped and deseeded
  • If you want a hotter taste, keep the seeds
• 200g baby spinach
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper

Method

• Gently heat the oil in a medium pan.
• Add the onions, garlic and chilli. Turn the heat right down and pop the lid on. Wait until the onions are soft and start to go translucent.
• Add the lentils, chickpeas, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, curry powder, salt and pepper. Cook for about a minute, stirring well.
• Put the spinach in the pan and keep stirring until it is wilted down.
• Now the tomatoes and stock go in. Bring to the boil then cover and turn the heat right down again to simmer for 30 minutes.

Notes

My wife doesn’t like a lot of spice so I’ve left the chilli seeds out of this. If you do want more heat, leave them in.