Focaccia, hummus & red lentil koftas
This sandwich/salad dish is very enjoyable because it combines many pieces of variable textures and flavours. The lettuce, cherry tomatoes and roasted capsicums bring freshness to the meal, whose centerpiece involves warm pita bread spread with hummus and filled with hearty red lentil koftas (resembling falafels).
Everything in this dish is homemade, but if you have to compromise, I recommend you make at least the hummus and roasted capsicums yourself. While you can find good bread and vegan meatballs (or even falafels) in the shops, nothing beats the freshness and flavour of homemade hummus and roasted capsicums.
Recipe adapted from Vegan made easy.
Ingredients
- Red lentil koftas
- 125g red lentils, soaked in water for ~1h
- 120 mL water
- 1/2 to 1 tsp veggie broth powder
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 5g breadcrumbs
- 15g flour
- Other
- 1/2 of my hummus recipe
- 1 batch of my focaccia recipe
- 60g cherry tomatoes
- 80g salad mix or lettuce
- 75g capsicum
Instructions
- Red lentil koftas
- Soak the lentils for > 1h, wash then thoroughly and drain them. This step is imperative to obtain the right texture later on.
- Add the soaked lentils to a small pot, and add the veggie broth powder, spices, and water.
- Cover with a lid, bring to a boil over low/medium heat, and let the lentils cook through. Monitor the cooking process as there is little water and the goal is to obtain a sort of puree, not a soup!
- Turn off heat, and blend the lentils with a spatula if they are really easy to puree, or with an immersion blender.
- Add the breadcrumbs + flour, and let the mix cool down while you prepare the rest.
- Heat up the oven grill at ~210°C.
- Place the capsicums on a sheet of baking paper on a tray, and place in the oven. Turn the capsicums regularly to blacken all sides evenly.
- Meanwhile, form little balls out of the lentil mixture using a falafel scoop or any other shaper, and place them on a baking paper.
- When all sides of the capsicums are roasted, take them out of the oven, immediately place them in a sealed container and let them cool down. The moisture of the capsicums will allow the skin to peel off easily later.
- Brush the lentil koftas with olive oil, and bake for ~10-15 min, and take them out of the oven.
- When the capsicums are cool enough to handle, strip the skin delicately off the capsicums, remove the seeds inside, and cut them into strips. Do not be tempted to use running water to remove the seeds or the skin, as it would remove the taste from the roasted capsicums.
- Assembly
- Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves, add some salad mix, roasted capsicum strips, red lentil koftas.
- Serve with focaccia and hummus, or thin a few tbsps of the hummus with water to turn it into a dressing. Enjoy!