Braised Chicory and Puy Lentils
Serves 4
Ingredients for the Braised, Citrusy Chicory
3-4 chicory
2 tbsp butter or olive oil
Salt & pepper
4 clementines or 1 large orange – to make 1 mug juice
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
3 tsp honey
A handful of parsley or coriander leaves, finely chopped
Ingredients for the Chicory
Ingredients For the Lentils
200g lentils, rinsed well (can soak for a couple of hours in hot water, then rinse if digestive issues)
Drizzle olive oil
1 small onion
1 celery
1 carrot
1 clove garlic
700ml – 1 litres veg stock
2 bay leaves
Ingredients for the Lentils
To garnish
Pomegranate seeds
A handful of chopped parsley
Method
Start with the lentils, if you are pushed for time a bag or two of ready-cooked lentils makes a great substitution.
Peel and finely chop the onion. Scrub and chop the carrot and celery. Crush the garlic. Add these to a pan with a drizzle olive oil, sauté gently for 5 mins until the veg is soft.
Add the lentils, 700ml stock and bay leaves, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes until the lentils are done. You may have to add more stock if the lentils dry out – add enough so that all the liquid is absorbed.
Meanwhile, halve the chicory lengthways.
Cut out the stalks in the middle and chop into chunks to ensure these cook evenly with the leaves.
Melt the butter, or heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the chicory halves, cut side down, and chopped stalks and season.
Cook the chicory for one minute, then add the clementine or orange juice and the crushed coriander seeds, bring up to a boil then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 5-10 minutes until the chicory is soft.
Add the honey and bring the heat back up and let reduce, lid off, until the liquid is thick.
Sprinkle with parsley and pomegranate seeds to serve with the lentils.
Other additions include some blue cheese chunks or walnut halves.
You could replace the lentils with some pan-fried white fish such as haddock or cod.
Chicory facts
Chicory, also known as endive, is a delicate bitter salad leaf from the dandelion family. Cultivated Belgian chicory can be pale yellow or red – I’ve gone for the red as it has a wider variety of antioxidants in. Both are deliciously juicy, crisp and with a slightly bitter taste work well in salads to stimulate the appetite. Chicory goes really well with nuts, pears, oranges, and other salad leaves and fantastic with a nice mustardy salad dressing. The bitter substances include the sesquiterpene lactones lactucin and lactucociprin which have sedative and calming properties. These and other bitter compounds in chicory are really liver supportive and help with the digestion of fats by promoting bile flow. Chicory is also thought to support the immune system and skin health.
Cooking chicory makes the leaves softer and with a fuller, less bitter flavour. Combined with clementine, a little honey and braised in butter (you can also use olive oil if vegan) gives a nice change from other winter veg like broccoli and kale.
Red Chicory being braised
