Almond and Red Lentil Stew

The great thing about lentils, compared to other legumes, is that they don’t require any pre-soaking before you cook with them! This means that you can whip up this stew with minimal fuss and preparation. Lentils are also fantastic because they are generally inexpensive whilst also being high in protein, vitamins, minerals and fibre but also virtually free from fat! What’s not to love?! Additionally, a cup serving of red lentils contains an impressive 6 milligrams of iron. The average woman needs around 18 milligrams of iron everyday whereas men need only 8, so a cup of lentils helps everyone to be well on the way to reaching this quota!

Julie MontaguJulieMontagu

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 carrot
• 1 leek
• 1 onion
• 1 sweet potato
• 3 cloves garlic
• 250 g red lentils
• 2 pint vegetable stock
• A handful almonds

Instructions:

• To get started making this stew, the first thing you’ll need to do is heat the coconut oil in a large pan. You can then fry the carrot, leek, onion, garlic and sweet potato in the coconut oil until it has softened. At this point you can then add the lentils in to the pan. The next step is to pour the two pints of vegetable stock into the pan and then add the coriander. Bring this to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for approximately 45 minutes. Just before the end of the cooking time for the stew, in another pan, fry the almonds in a splash of coconut oil for two minutes. You can then serve the lentil stew with the almonds and tomatoes.