Little marvels: Yotam Ottolenghi's lentil recipes | Food (2024)

If pressed to commit, however, I'dbet both Sami and I would answer the same. The ultimate comfort food? Lentils, every time. And the ultimate comfort dish? Mejadra, amelange of sweetly spiced rice and lentils strewn with soft, fried onion. The ingredients couldn't be humbler, but the result couldn't be more comforting or sublime.

Lentils can be broadly divided into two groups. Those with large, flat seeds are the more common. They soften much more quickly than most beans and peas, and take only 20 or so minutes to cook. Unlike red lentils, which fall apart in the cooking (so making them perfect for soups), brown and green varieties hold their shape, making them a very good base on which to lay a roast bird or to sit with sausages in a one-pot stew. A pan of lentils – braised with carrots, onions, celery, hard herbs and stock – is a useful thing tohave in the fridge, ready to turn yesterday's leftover roast into a whole new meal.

Whichever colour you go for, lentils love to absorb other flavours: dress them while they're still warm, so they really take on any sharpness or spice that's been added. Unlike many other legumes, lentils don't need soaking, but do give them a rinse before cooking, to remove any starchy dust. If you cook them in too much liquid (water or stock), their nutrients will leach out, so, unlike pasta, which likes a nice rolling boil, use just enough to be soaked up.

Crushed puy lentils with tahini and cumin

This sustaining meal-on-a-plate isalittle bit like hummus, though much easier and quicker to prepare. With warm flatbread, I could eat thisevery day. Serves two as a main, or four as a starter.

Bring a medium pan of water to a boil. Add the lentils and cook for 15-20 minutes, until completely cooked, drain and set aside.

Put the butter and oil in a large sauté pan and place on a medium-high heat. Once the butter melts, add the garlic and cumin, and cookfor a minute. Add the tomatoes, 20g of coriander and thecooked lentils. Cook, stirring, fora couple of minutes, then add the tahini, lemon juice, 70ml of water, a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper. Turn down the heat to medium and cook gently,stirring, for a few minutes more, until hot and thickened. Roughly mash the lentils with apotato masher, so that some are broken up and you get a thick, porridge consistency.

Spread out the lentils on a flat platter, run a fork through to make awavy pattern on top, and scatter on the sliced onion, the remaining coriander and a final drizzle of olive oil. Serve warm with the hard-boiled eggs alongside.

Lentils with mushrooms and preserved lemon ragout

Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Soak the porcini in 200ml ofboiling water for an hour. Strain through muslin into a bowl, to remove any grit from the water, and set aside. Rinse the soaked porcini in fresh water and add them to the strained water in the bowl.

Half-fill a medium saucepan with water. Put on a high heat and add the onion, thyme, bay, the halved carrot and half a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil, add the lentils, turn the heat to medium and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes, until the lentils are cooked but still retain a bite. Drain, remove and discard the veg and herbs, and set aside.

Put a tablespoon of oil in a large sauté pan and put on a high heat. Add the leek and a half-teaspoon of salt, and fry for two minutes, stirring, until soft and lightly caramelised all over. Tip into a bowl, add the ceps and another tablespoon of oil to the pan, and fry for three minutes, until caramelised. Tip into the leek bowl, and repeat with the wild mushrooms, then return the seared leek and ceps to the pan. Add the cream, preserved lemon and porcini and their water, turn up the heat and boil for five minutes, until thickened and reduced by half.

To serve, divide the lentils between four plates and spoon over the mushrooms. Top with a dollop of yoghurt, sprinkle over the remaining coriander and serve hot.