For speedy cooking during the week, why not peel as many cloves of garlic as you like, grate them into an ice-cube tray and freeze so you have garlic galore in your freezer ready to be added to a whole host of dishes?
Jamie: Fast & Simple
Not Too Tricky
serves 4
About the recipe
Julius Fiedler knows a thing or two about taking humble ingredients and creating something special, and this recipe does just that. Created for Jamie: Fast & Simple, this 30-minute winner, inspired by Middle Eastern and Levantine cooking, uses what Julius calls ‘building blocks of flavour’ to create a soup that you’ll want to come back to again and again!
Recipe From
Ingredients
300g brown lentils
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 large onion
30g fresh coriander
1 lemon
1 heaped teaspoon plain flour
4 cloves of garlic
1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
300g tagliatelle (or a mix of leftover pasta)
200g spinach
Top Tip
You can use fresh mint or flat-leaf parsley instead of the coriander, and frozen spinach instead of fresh, if that’s what you have.
Method
- Fill a kettle with 2 litres of water and put it on to boil. Rinse the lentils, add them to a large saucepan and cover with the boiling water. Cover with a lid and simmer for 15 minutes over a low heat.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oil in a large casserole pan, finely dice and add the onion, then sauté over a medium-high heat until golden.
- Trim and discard the lower stems of the coriander, finely chop the rest and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and flour, and set aside.
- When the lentils have 2 to 3 minutes left, finely grate the garlic directly into the onions and cook for another minute until the raw scent has disappeared. Stir in the ground coriander, cumin and black pepper, and heat through.
- Pour in the lentils and their cooking liquid, the lemon mixture, and half of the chopped coriander, reserving the other half for garnish.
- Break the pasta into spoonful-sized pieces directly into the pan, then add the spinach and a generous pinch of salt, to taste. Mix well, cover and cook for as long as instructed on the pasta packet (about 8 to 10 minutes).
- Divide the soup between bowls, garnish with the remaining coriander and a drizzle of olive oil.
Recipe © Julius Fiedler, 2024.
When boiling lentils, be sure not to add salt at the beginning, as it slows the cooking process down and makes them tough.
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