Festive Beetroot Lentils

This festive lentil dish makes for a lovely vegan main or side dish on Christmas day, as it looks so beautiful with its colour combination, and it works well alongside more traditional sides like roast potatoes and red cabbage. It also works well with rainbow slaw.

INGREDIENTS

2 onions

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 tablespoon coconut aminos

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

1 teaspoon chilli flakes

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon garam masala

700ml Vegetable stock

1¾ (300g) Split red lentils

1½ cups (250g) cooked beetroot, cut into chunks

4 tablespoons coconut yoghurt 

1 inch piece of ginger, grated

METHOD

Peel the onions and slice them into rings. Add the oil to a shallow pan followed by the onions and coconut aminos, and fry over a low heat for 20 to 25 minutes, until deeply caramelised. Stir from time to time, adding a little water or stock, if necessary, to prevent the onions from burning. Half way through, add the sliced garlic. Towards the end, stir in the chilli flakes and mustard seeds, and cook for a few minutes more before turning off the heat.

Rinse the lentils under the tap until the water runs clean, then bring the stock to the boil in a saucepan, and add the lentils to the boiling stock. Lower the heat and cook for fifteen minutes until the lentils are soft. Towards the end, add in the turmeric and garam masala.

Roughly chop the beetroot into chunks and fold into the lentils, cooking for a few minutes more, and then taste for seasoning. A little salt and pepper, the juice of a little freshly grated ginger and a dash of lemon, would be good at this stage. Remove the lentils to a dish or individual bowls, adding the fried onions and dollops of coconut yoghurt on top.

*Coconut aminos is a non-soy alternative to soy sauce. It adds depth of flavour and tastes slightly sweet.