Savoury Rice with lentils and vegetables for Organic September

Did you know that September was named as Organic September ?  The Supermarket Waitrose has been  supporting the Soil Association’s ‘Small Changes, Big Difference’ campaign by celebrating everything organic.   I was invited to take part in this celebration and asked  if I would swap one meal a day to organic for a week.  I liked the challenge and will be creating some exciting and tasty new recipes over the week using as much Organic foodstuff as I can find.

Waitrose is my regular supermarket so it was quite easy for me to swap my daily staples such as milk, rice, yogurt, fruit and vegetables to Organic products. Some organic products took me by surprise e.g. I  wasn’t aware that you could get Organic Basmati rice, pasta, pasta sauce  and the Organic Heinz Baked beans!!   To give you ideas on what to cook using organic products , Waitrose have some helpful recipes  on their website. 

I used the Waitrose Organic Basmati rice to make this simple but tasty savoury Rice with lentils and organic frozen peas for Day 1.    This dish is a perfect one dish meal with just the right flavours to make it delicious enough to it on its own or with a curry.   It’s also a very healthy dish with the right amount of carbohydrates and protein.

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• Half a cup of  split pidgeon peas (often called Toor / Tuver Dall ) (you can use any lentils)
• Half a cup of  organic Basmati Rice
• 2-3 tablespoons of organic frozen peas
• 2 small organic peppers
• 7-8 small baby plum tomatoes
• 1 small organic onion for garnishing
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1-2 tbls Olive oil
• 1 tsp mixture of whole cumin and coriander seeds
• 2-3 Cloves
• 1 inch of cinnamon stick

Method:

1. Mix the rice and lentils and wash them with several changes of cold water.  Soak the mixture in cold water for at least an hour.

2. After soaking,  remove most of the water from the mixture and transfer it to a large saucepan. Add the salt, turmeric,  green pea, peppers and the tomatoes.  Add 2 cups of water and cook the mixture on a medium heat for 10-12 minutes. You may need to add half a cup of extra water to it if the lentils aren’t cooked.

3. Once the lentils soften,  Heat the olive oil in a different saucepan.  Add the cumin and coriander seeds, cloves and cinnamon and allow them to pop and get a bit dark in colour.  Pur this on top of the cooked savoury rice.

4. Lightly fluff up the Savoury Rice and garnish it with sliced onions and plum tomatoes. Serve it hot.   We served ours with Organic Yogurt.

I was sent a voucher by Waitrose to purchase Organic Foods in order to undertake this challenge.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Do you buy organic produce? If so, which items do your prefer to be organic?

These are the dishes I prepared for Organic September:

• Tortilla wraps and samosas
• Jacket Potatoes with Organic Beans
• Vegetarian Four Bean Cottage Pie

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