Puy & Green Lentil Stew with Sage Dumplings

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Puy & Green Lentil Stew with Sage Dumplings

This fabulous recipe is from MIH teacher, trustee & co-founder of the Diverse Nutrition Association Melissa Saint Hill. Want more? Of course you do! Check out more of her stunning recipes over at @the_bare_scientist on Instagram. 

Ingredients

Ingredients for stew

• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, diced into chunks
• 4 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunky rounds
• 1 large sweet potato, cut into chunky cubes
• 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
• 1 small red and yellow bell pepper each, roughly chopped into chunky cubes
• 300g can cannellini beans
• 400g chopped tomatoes
• 250ml stock
• 2 tablespoon tomato purée
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 250g pouch Merchant Gourmet Tomatoey French Puy & Green Lentils
• 250g pouch Merchant Gourmet Puy Lentils (simply cooked)
• Salt, pepper, chilli powder, dried mixed herbs to taste

Ingredients for dumplings

• 340g plain flour
• 1tsp each of salt and pepper
• ¼ cup dried mixed herbs
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1½ cups water
• 10g fresh sage leaves roughly chopped, plus a few extra left whole for garnish
• Another separate 1 tablespoon olive oil

Side Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 200g cavolo nero, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat 2 tablespoon olive oil in a large and deep cast iron pot or casserole pot over a high heat, adding roughly chopped chunky onions, cooking for 2-3 minutes before adding in minced garlic.
2. Add in the chopped carrots and sweet potato, frying down for a further 5 minutes.
3. Add in 1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, and a good amount (approximately ¼ dried mixed herbs). Follow on by adding in celery and bell peppers and leave to cook for a further 15 - 20 minutes.
4. Add in canned chopped tomatoes, tomato purée and stock to the pot. Stir thoroughly and leave to simmer for a further 5 minutes.
5. Following this, add and stir in drained and rinsed cannellini beans and Merchant Gourmet Tomatoey French Puy & Green Lentils and Merchant Gourmet Puy Lentils (simply cooked). Reduce the heat to medium-low and leave to simmer gently for 15 minutes.
6. Whilst the stew is now simmering prepare the dumplings. Add flour, salt, pepper and dried mixed herbs to a mixing bowl, forming a well. Pour the olive oil and chopped fresh sage into the well and start to fold the flour inwards towards the well, adding the water slowly whilst forming the dough. Once the dough has come together, form into a ball and add a little extra water if too dry or a little more flour if too wet. Knead until smooth and elastic. Twist and tear off golf ball sized pieces of dough and roll into little balls (you should accomplish at least 8).
7. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6 (200C). Place the dumplings on top of the leveled stew and put into the oven to cook for a further 30 minutes. You can either cover the pot so the dumplings steam or leave the pot uncovered the whole time or part of the time for more golden dumplings.
8. Whilst the stew and dumplings are cooking, heat a pan over a medium-hire fire with olive oil and add minced garlic. Fry this off for no longer than 1 minute as you do not want the garlic to burn.
9. Add in a dash of water (approximately 2 tablespoon), followed by roughly chopped cavolo nero and more water (approximately ½ cup). Season with salt and pepper to taste, and cook for approximately 10 – 15 minutes or until the leaves turn a darker green and start to wilt. 
10. Once the dumplings are cooked through, remove the pot from the oven and place the sage leaves set aside for garnish into the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and lay flat on a baking tray. Place these into the oven on the top shelf and cook until crispy to the touch (takes about 3 - 5 minutes as the leaves are quite thick but keep an eye on them). These will be placed on top of the stew and dumplings and work lovely as little extra pockets burst of flavour between fork or spoonfuls of the stew, dumplings and cavolo nero.