Seve with rice …

Ingredients - serves 4

500g kofta meatballs
150g puy lentils
20g butter
20g dried porcini
200ml chicken stock
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 medium carrot, finely grated
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped coriander
salt, pepper

Method

1 Heat the stock and leave the porcini to soak in it for 30 minutes. Brown the kofta all over in a little oil and set aside. Dry roast the cumin seeds in a small frying pan - remove from the heat as soon as they begin to release a toasty aroma.

2 Sweat the chopped shallot in the butter until softened then add the puy lentils to the pan together with the browned kofta and toasted cumin. Pour over the stock and porcini and add water to generously cover the lentils and kofta. Bring to the boil and add pepper (don’t add salt until end of cooking time). Cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the lentils are tender - mixing in very finely grated carrot after 10 minutes. Add salt to taste and fold in the chopped herbs and serve.