Recipe: Lentil Loaf Supreme

I enjoy cooking, especially when it involves completely making up a new dish of some kind. My lentil loaf supreme has been fairly popular and had many recipe requests. I always made it up as I went, but I finally wrote it down today to go into a cook book some friends are putting together.

Lentil Loaf Supreme

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 120 minutes

Ingredients:
1 cup brown lentils
1 cup puy lentils
1/4 cup aduki beans
1/4 cup wild rice
1 cup couscous
3 bell peppers
2 onions
1 tube tomato puree
handful black olives
handful mushrooms
cooking oil
4 stock cubes
2 tablespoons dried chopped rosemary (or 4 fresh)
2 tablespoons dried chopped sage (or 4 fresh)
1 teaspoon chilli flakes

FYI... there is some general confusion about lentil nomenclature. When I say brown lentils, I mean the mostly flat, tan coloured lentils that are most commonly available. When I say puy lentils, I mean the dark green mottled lentils that are smaller and not as flat.

Put lentils, aduki beans, and wild rice in water, and simmer for 1 hour. Check every 10 minutes to stir, and add water if needed. The microwave is the easiest (and greenest) way to boil pulses like this. Once cooked, drain off cooking water, put in a large mixing bowl, and mash. The brown lentils should turn mushy, while the puy lentils, beans, and wild rice should hold their shape.

Chop peppers and onions finely into squares. Shallow fry in cooking oil for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add pepper/onion mix to lentil mix.

Bring 2 cups of water to boil, and add in the 4 stock cubes (crumbled), rosemary, sage, and chili flakes. Make sure the stock cubes are fully dissolved. Turn off heat, and stir in 1 cup couscous. Leave for 10 minutes to absorb water. After this, stir in couscous with lentil/pepper/onion mix. Also stir in 1/2 tube of tomato puree (100 g).

Grease a large, deep cooking pan (or two if they are small) with cooking oil, and add lentil/pepper/onion/couscous mix to fill the pan(s) evenly. Put the remaining 1/2 tube tomato puree in a bowl, and mix with 1/2 water. Spread this tomato sauce evenly over the lentil loaf in the pan. Put chopped olives and chopped mushrooms on top of this tomato covering. Bake for 50 minutes at 200 degrees. Let cool 15 minutes before slicing into squares. Keeps well for several days.