This isn’t the most visually pleasing dish even with the decorative sprig of rosemary, but the taste will more than compensate for the plain looks. Heikki took his half to work on the next day, and says it was very good re-heated as well. Cooking this took me about 25 minutes from start to finish, including the cooking time for lentils.

The Ingredients (serves 2):

• 5 dl whole wheat fusilli
• 300 g eggplant (1 medium)
• 1 and 1/2 dl green lentils (plus 1 bay leaf for cooking)
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 dl fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons capers
• salt and pepper to taste
• nutritional yeast for sprinkling (optional)

The first thing I did was to rinse the lentils. Then I placed them in a small sauce pan with plenty of cooking water and a bay leaf, and let them simmer until soft but still firm.

Now, I cut the eggplant in small cubes, and heated a non-stick frying pan with about half a tablespoon of the olive oil. Eggplant will absorb any amount of olive oil, so there’s no point adding too much. Then I started frying the eggplant, on medium-high heat, stirring every now and then to ensure even browning.

I chopped the rosemary, squeezed the lemon juice, and grated the garlic, and mixed all these together. Then I cooked a large pot of water for the pasta, and added it in the pot when the lentils had cooked for about 10 minutes so that they’d be ready at about the same time.

When the lentils were done (which only took 15 minutes to my surprise), I rinsed them, removed the bay leaf, and added them to the frying pan with about two thirds of the lemon-garlic-rosemary mix. I added some salt at this point as well, and continued frying for about 3 minutes, stirring all the time. Finally, I added the capers, and removed the pan from heat.

When the pasta was cooked, I drained it, and combined it in the cooking pot with the rest of the lemon, garlic, and rosemary, and half a tablespoon of olive oil. After I plated the dish I sprinkled it with some nutritional yeast, and ground a healthy amount of black pepper over my portion.

We had a lot of leftovers, and if served as a side dish, this batch would probably make enough for 6.

• 3 dl green lentils
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, finely cubed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary
• 1/2 dl dry sherry
• freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste
• 4 sun dried tomatoes in oil, minced

I started by rinsing the lentils and pouring them in a bowl filled with cold water in order to soak them while I was doing everything else. Although soaking isn’t necessary, even half an hour makes legumes easier on the stomach.

Then, I cubed the onion and garlic, and fried them in the olive oil on medium heat until a little browned. This took me about 15 minutes, because I wanted to keep the heat down in order to prevent the garlic from getting burnt. I ground the dried rosemary in a mortar, and added that to the pan.

Then I rinsed the lentils once again, and added them to the pan, coating them with oil. Now, I added sherry, and then minced sun-dried tomatoes. When the liquid started to boil, I added enough water to cover the lentils, but not more. I seasoned the stew with salt and black pepper, covered the pan with a lid, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. I kept my eye on the lentils while they were cooking to see if I needed to add more liquid. I didn’t want to add more than they would absorb. This way, there was no broth left when the lentils were done, and they had absorbed all the aromas along with the liquid.