Lentil Pasta - Best Ever!

Well,  that's what all the family said, anyway.  'Best ever, Mum'.   Well,  I've been making lentil pastas for a while now... variations on a theme.  This was the first time in the TMX and so I tried to be really careful with what I was adding.


Ingredients
  • 2 cans lentils - drained and rinsed (keep separate)
  • 1 can kidney beans - drained and rinsed
  • oil or butter
  • 1-2 cloves garlic
  • l/2 - 1 leek - cut into chunks
  • carrot - peeled & grated (Yes, I could have used the TMX  to pulverise it,  but 9 month-old Mr JA hates the loud noise)
  • zucchini - peeled & grated
  • 1/4 - 1/8 cabbage
  • peas
  • tsp salt
  • tsp citric acid
  • 1 - 2 tabs brown sugar
Method
  • put in garlic and leek into TMX and give it a quick whizz to chop
  • scrape down and add butter
  • Saute on 100 deg for 2 minutes on speed 1.
  • Add 1 can of the lentils and kidney beans (retain a few beans to add whole later)
  • A couple of whizzes on turbo will see it done
  • Add carrot, cabbage, zuccini, peas (retaining a few), salt, citric acid and brown sugar
  • Cook on 100 degrees for 20 minutes on Reverse Speed 1 (check it for water during the process and add a little if necessary)
  • Give it another good whizz to get it all processed,  it will somewhat resemble a mince.  Slowly bring up to Speed 7 (careful, it's hot!) for about 30 seconds.
  •  Add the second can of lentils,  few kidney beans and frozen peas.
  • Cook on 100 deg for a further 10 minutes on Reverse Speed 1.
  • Check and see if it's ready,  if it's still tasting a bit 'cabbage-y', then keep cooking for perhaps another 10 minutes or so.
  • Serve over penne or spiralli or spaghetti...  

Verdict:  This is not my favourite meal.  But Ms C and Ms D and Mr JR all just polished it off and went for seconds.     Mr frillypants also said it was the best yet,  even though a bit sweet for him.   There were tears as there was no more cooked pasta to keep going with for third helpings.

Tweeks:  As I said, Mr frillypants thought this was too sweet,  but that's his taste.  I felt it needed the sweetening otherwise it was a bit too 'earthy', if that makes sense.  The kids sure loved it!  And that's the main thing.  I need to do the pasta in the TMX,  but this time used an old fashioned saucepan as I couldn't be sure how long it was going to take me to cook the sauce.

Without the TMX,  just do all the above in a large saucepan,  process it in a food processor or with a wand and then continue with it back in the saucepan.

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