After a well deserved break I am back with a new series of images and recipes Giulia and I created for January.
I am aiming to post one recipe a week every Friday.
This months theme is Detox. As we know January is for many “Veganuary”, for others “Dry January”. I have never been a great fan of these trends, because it is like saying that you can feel at peace with yourself by being a good person only for 30 days, when you have been bad all year round.
I think we should try to do be moderate most of the times, but I understand many of us have been naughty throughout Christmas and NYE and we are desperately trying to recover the damage done both to ourselves and the environment.
So for these reasons we created some fun recipes to give a break to your body, eat something nice and tackle climate change at the same time.
For this recipe we played on the concept of spaghetti meatballs but using lentils ‘meatballs’ and spiralised courgettes instead of spaghetti.
You will need a spiraliser for this recipe to make your courgettes look like spaghetti.
Giulia is an expert nutritionist and she gave me some insight about the ingredients used here.
“Some great plant-based foods that are rich in proteins are nuts & seeds (pumpkin seeds, hemp, linen seeds, etc… almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios…) and legumes such as beans and lentils, but also eating whole grains can help you reaching your daily protein intake which is 0.8g per kilogram of body weight.
We prepared these lentil polpette (balls) with tomato sauce and zucchetti (zucchini spaghetti) as we wanted to show how easy it is to cook vegan and still use some of those comforting flavours which remind us of home. Lentils can be a great alternative to meat. They are definitely high in protein, containing about 9g of protein per 100g, and they are also rich in fibre which make them a good food for our digestion and blood-sugar balance.
Courgette spaghetti instead of regular wheat spaghetti for reducing refined carb consumption as well, on top of increase fibre intake.”
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Serves 2 people
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE LENTIL BALLS (32-35 balls)
1 garlic clove
1/2 tsp paprika
1 shallot
1 tsp oregano
80g potato
100g dry lentils
2g salt
one twist of black pepper
a handful of parsley
50g oat flour
TOMATO SAUCE
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 onion (45g)
1 garlic clove
1 red chilli
3g salt
400g tinned chopped tomatoes
2 small courgettes spiralised
INSTRUCTIONS
Soak the lentils in water for about 1-2 hours.
Fill a pan with water and bring to a boil. Cook lentils for about 30minutes or until they are soft.
For better results taste your lentils to check when they are ready.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes. In a separate pan cook the potatoes previously cut in boiling water for about 25 minutes.
Now in a food processor blend in the lentils to form a smooth cream, then mash your potatoes and incorporate them into the mix together with the rest of the ingredients.
Using your hands shape the mix into balls of about 3cm diameter. Then roll the balls into the oat flour to form a coating.
Arrange the lentil balls in a large tray previously covered with baking paper.
Cook in the oven for about 15 minutes or until they fully cooked and crunchy on the outside.
To make the tomato sauce, finely chop the onion and the chili and slice the garlic in a half.
Take a small pan to cook these ingredients together in olive oil for about 3-4 minutes.
Then pour in the tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes. Season to taste.
Then lightly blanch your spiralised zucchini in boiling water for 30-60 seconds.
Now you can assemble the plate with all your ingredients.
