Morrocan Lentils

This is an everyday but delicious dish that you might not find in your average Moroccan cookery book.

These amounts should serve 2 people as a meal or more people as a starter. Serve with fresh crusty bread and you could make crispy chips and Moroccan Salad....

• · 500ml brown lentils
• · 1 small onion
• · 2 tomatoes
• · 4 cloves garlic
• · 1tsp tomato puree
• · 1 fresh hot red or green chilli
• · Piece of preserved or fresh lemon (optional)
• · Handful of green olives (optional)
• · Small piece of meat – lamb or chicken (optional)
• · Tablespoon oil
• · Handful fresh coriander
• · 2 tsp ground ginger
• · 1stp ground cumin
• · 1 tsp paprika
• · Plenty black pepper
• · Salt to taste
• · About a litre of water

1 large pan, 1 sharp knife, grater, chopping board, sieve, wooden spoon

First thing to do is wash the lentils and then add them to a large pan, cover by an inch with water and heat till they have been boiling for about 15 minutes.

In the meantime grate the onion and then removing a piece of the tomato skin grate the tomato flesh – you can do this so that you are just left holding the skin (saves you grating your finger tips and is a grate (!?) way to peel and finely chop tomatoes!)... unless of course you have a blender in which case you can just whizz them up - or in the absence of fresh tomatoes you could finely chop two or three tinned tomatoes.

Change the water in the lentils (this is what the sieve is for) and then add more water and boil again for 15 minutes.

Finely chop the coriander and peel and chop the garlic.

After the lentils have been boiled again you can sieve them and put them to one side.

Add the oil to the pan and then add the spices (except the salt), the garlic and, if you are using it, the meat. Fry it for a while and then add the tomatoes and onions and the coriander, tomato puree and lentils and the water along with the olives and the piece of lemon and the chilli. Bring to a simmer and cook until it is ready.... how long will depend on whether or not you are using meat.

If it seems too watery just boil the excess water off until it is nice and thick.

Now you can taste it and add the salt. If you add the salt too early while cooking lentils or beans (any pulses) it tends to take ages to get them to cook properly and you end up with hard lentils!

You can serve it the Moroccan way – in one big shallow communal bowl/plate or individually and eat it with bread or spoons.... You can either fish the chilli out or leave it in and those who like it hot can take the chilli to one side and open it up then dab their bread in it before collecting lentils......

If you are using lamb I like to add ground cinnamon to the spices, if chicken you could add some turmeric... in fact you can play around with the spices as much as you like!