Monday night dinner always needs to be quick and easy in my house but this week I needed something nutritious, delicious and with as few ingredients as possible due to the busy weekend I’d had.

There was very little food in the house this week and there was no way I was going to do battle with a supermarket so, I checked the cupboard and found lentils, the veg rack had onions and sweet potatoes and the fridge was harbouring some leeks so that’s what I cooked and it turned out delicious.

Ingredients

1 tbs coconut oil

1 onion (chopped)

1 leek (chopped into half moon shapes)

2 cloves garlic (chopped)

2 tbs liquid aminos (yeast extract/soy sauce will substitute if you need to)

1 cup green lentils (this will cook up and expand into two cups)

Stock/water

Sweet potatoes (I used 3 to feed two of us with a little leftover for Tuesday lunch but cook as many as you will eat)

Green veg to serve (I had asparagus)

Salt & pepper

What to do

Sautee the onion and leek in the coconut oil then add the garlic and black pepper when they have softened.  If you have them, add the liquid aminos (or soy sauce) at this point (if using marmite add it later with the liquid).

Add the lentils and stock to the pan.  I don’t measure the amount of liquid but the lentils will soak up a lot so make sure you keep checking to make sure they’re not boiling dry.

Bring the lentils to a boil then turn down to a fast simmer so the lentils will cook before all the liquid boils away.  They should take around 40 minutes to cook completely.  If you’re using marmite, add a large teaspoon now – your dinner won’t taste like yeast extract but it will have a deep savoury flavour.

In the meantime, chop the sweet potatoes into rounds as shown below.  Put some olive oil into a bowl, add salt and pepper and the sweet potatoes.  Give them a stir to coat with the seasonings and lay onto a sheet pan in a single layer.  Bake these in the oven at 180 degrees for around 25-30 minutes until soft.

Whilst the potatoes are cooking, prepare your green veg.  I just griddled the asparagus in a pan until soft enough to eat but cook what you enjoy.

Plate up and enjoy.

This was enough to make two dinners and leftovers for one Tuesday lunch (but my husband eats an enormous amount, much more than pictured below, so these amounts would probably stretch to four ‘normal’ sized portions).

Let me know if you enjoy this simple to prepare but delicious dinner