Denise says:
The tradition at Purim is to eat seeds, nuts and pulses. The story behind this connected with Queen Esther who was living in the King’s Palace in Persia. As a Jewess she was forbidden from eating the non-kosher Royal banquets and so lived frugally on a diet of seeds, nuts and pulses. To honour this early story of our vegetarian ancestor, I have devised a delicious salad fit for a Queen!
This very tasty recipe uses Puy lentils which are the French small green lentils that come from central France. These tiny lentils have a distinctive nutty flavour and texture and keep their shape and colour during cooking.
Preparation Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 55 minutes
Serves: 6 people
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons – olive oil1 leek – trimmed and diced
2 sweet potatoes – peeled and diced
3 carrots – peeled and diced
250g Puy lentils
2.5 cm piece fresh ginger – peeled and grated
750 ml hot vegetable stock
3 oranges – peeled and cut into segments
200g spinach leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper – to taste
Garnish: 2 tablespoons whole almonds – toasted
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried coriander
Method
1) Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan.2) Sauté the leek, sweet potatoes, carrots and ginger together for 10 minutes.
3) Stir in the lentils and add the hot vegetable stock. Cover and leave to simmer for 40 minutes.
4) When the lentils are completely cooked, stir in the spinach leaves and orange segments and remove from the heat.
5) Toast the almonds in a separate pan with no oil. Season with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and dried coriander.
To serve the stylish way: Sprinkle the toasted almonds on top of the warm salad.