On days off, this is an incredibly easy meal to get going, and makes for minimal washing up after eating. I’ve used lentils and the veggies I had available in the crisper – you can use pretty much any veg you like, or sub in beans / chick peas for lentils. Things like snow peas should probably be added late in cooking – but then, you’d have to open the oven part-way through cooking to do that…which defeats the purpose of “set and forget” cooking. I’m good with eating them well-done, in order to fit in a trip to the park instead!
INGREDIENTS – serves 2 large meals, WITH leftovers
- 2 lamb shanks
- 1 tin brown lentils, drained
- 2 white potatoes, 1 sweet potato – both UNPEELED
- 2 carrots UNPEELED, chopped in chunky widths
- 6 sticks celery, roughly chopped
- 1 fresh tomato, halved and quartered
- 2 brown onions – roughly chopped
- 1 cup green beans or snow peas
- garlic cloves – keep whole, 5 is a minimum…
- 4 long rosemary sprigs
- ½ cup red wine
- 2.5 cups hot water
- 1 Massel’s vegetable stock cube or 2 tsp Herbamare veggie salt (loosely packed)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp brown sugar
METHOD
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Arrange (i.e. throw in) a bottom layer of chopped vegetables + garlic cloves + 2 rosemary sprigs in a large casserole dish
- Next add your lamb shanks, then remaining vegetables, lentils + rosemary.
- Dissolve the stock cube, sugar, tomato paste with 2.5 cups of hot water. Pour over the veggies + lamb.
- Next pour over your red wine, and more water if your dish is shaped such that lots of veg are going to be out of liquid.
- Cook, covered for 3 hours.
Enjoy your healthy-hearty plant-based winter-warmer one-pot-wonder…
