PENNE WITH LENTILS, TOMATO SAUCE AND FETA: a vegetarian recipe (delicious)

timaenho (25)in #vegetarian • 7 years ago

This is like the upcoming recipes, an easy and fast to make dish. It combines elements of the greece kitchen with elements of the italian kitchen. It is a dish were we play with 3 main flavors: salt, sweet and sour. I will not describe in the recipe how much of each flavor you have to add. I want you to experiment with it. In my view cooking is experimenting until you find the perfect flavor, which is of course for everybody different. Flavor is subjective. Lets get into the recipe.

We start with the ingredients.

Ingredients that you have to have in your kitchen and that you will need in this recipe (additional ingredients).

pepper and salt
balsamic vinegar
bouillon (vegetable stock)
brown sugar
olive oil

Ingredients for this recipe that you normally need to buy in the supermarket (for 1 person).

onion - 1
garlic - 1p
cherrytomatos - 7p
dry oregano
lentils (you can buy lentils in a can or you can prepare them before you start - boil them for 25 minutes) - 200gr
penne - 80gr
arugula
fetacheese - 20gr
concentrated tomato paste - 1 small can
pumpkin seeds

Step 1: cutting the vegetables.

Boil water in a bowl for the penne. Chop the onion and garlic in little pieces. Cut the cherry tomatos in half.

Step 2 Roast the pumpkin seeds.

Roast them in a pan without oil on high temperature.

Step 3 make the sauce.

Use the same pan but lower the temperature a bit (otherwise the vegetables will burn). Add the onion and garlic to the pan and fry them for 2 minutes.
Add the oregano and the concentrated tomato paste and fry it 5 more minutes.
After that you add 100 ml water with bouillon. Use the balsamic vinegar to add the sour flavor in your dish. Add the brown sugar to add the sweet flavor. Let it boil on a low temperature for 10 more minutes with a lid on the pan.

Step 4 boil the penne.

In the meanwhile boil the penne 10 - 12 minutes.
Add the lentils to the pan with the boiling sauce. Mix it with the sauce and let it boil softly for 1 more minute.

Step 5 mix all the food.

Mix in a bowl olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add pepper and salt. Use this as a 'dressing' for the arugula.

Crumble half of the feta cheese and add it to the sauce.
At last you add the penne to the sauce. Mix the sauce with the penne.
Add pepper and salt.

Note: You deside how much vinegar/ olive oil/ pepper or salt you use. While you are cooking, you have to taste the food and add more or less of the above ingredients.