… Warm Tomato Salad & Naan
I made this dish last night. I fancied something vegetarian and this one looked good.
Before doing this project I thought that you had to soak red split lentils for at least a few hours (ideally overnight) before cooking. This is the second meal where I have cooked the lentils in a short space of time (around ten minutes). The other meal was Lamb Lollipops. Having now done a bit of googling it seems like this is one of those urban myths. It seems it’s only the larger pulses (like dried kidney beans) that require soaking.
I am running in to problems with my food processor. There were lots of things (1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, some ginger, 2 chillies, 1 pepper, 1 large bunch of fresh coriander) that require whizzing up in the food processor. Apparently in one go. Past experience has shown that this doesn’t work. I opt for doing it in two stages. In the end I needed a third whiz made up of some of the larger bits left over from the first two attempts. This actually costs me a lot of time and it is nearing the five minute mark before I get the lentils in. I am really worried that they won’t cook in time.
I also bought the wrong tomatoes. The recipe calls for mixed-colour cherry tomatoes. I know Tesco sell these and in part that is why I opt for shopping in Tesco. But today they don’t have their usual little trays of yellow and red cherry tomatoes (significantly more red ones by the way). There are no yellow tomatoes at all. So I bought cheaper larger vine tomatoes. I had forgotten that I specifically needed cherry tomatoes. All this meant that my warm tomato salad did not look as pretty as the picture in the book.
After the lentils were in the rest of the cooking process was quick and went well. And I did have a minute or two of waiting time. As with a few of the other meals I have done recently there was a far bit to bring together at the end. In the end I was just over the fifteen minute mark. Had I not had the food processor issue I would have been comfortably within the fifteen minutes. That said if I hadn’t been chasing the clock, my natural instinct would have been to let the lentils simmer for another five or ten minutes. But they were cooked at the fifteen minute mark.
This really was a nice meal. Just the right amount of heat. Interesting flavours and a good mix of textures. Definitely one to do again.
By the way you do not make the naan bread. You just warm it up.
How much: £TBC.
How long: Fifteen minutes and fifteen seconds.
Who with: Gavin.
