whats your fave recipe using dried peas/beans/lentils?

We love easy bean casserole in this house - it's one of our store cupboard emergency dinners. We normally have it with chilli in for adults, but here's the baby-friendly version, you can always stir in a bit of tabasco if you want yours hotter. These portions use two tins of beans, so just adjust them if you want to use more. The packets you have will need to be pre-soaked or boiled to soften them, there should be instructions on the packet telling you what to do.

1. Dice one onion and a couple of sticks of celery. Put into a large saucepan with some olive oil and fry until softened.
2. Drain two tins of beans or chickpeas (any mixture, one tin can be sweetcorn if you like) and add to the pan together with a tin of chopped tomatoes. Fill the empty tomato tin about 2/3 of the way with boiling water and add that to the pan, together with a veggie stock cube.
3. Add a large teaspoon of cumin seeds, some ground coriander and salt and pepper (we add chilli at this point but leave it out for babies) and give everything a good stir.
4. Simmer for about twenty minutes, serve with couscous.

As an alternative, you can bake this in the oven. Fry the vegetables, then tip the veggies, beans, spices and tomatoes into an oven dish (omit the water, and stock), cover with a layer of plain yoghurt and some grated cheese. Bake for 30mins at 220c.

How about a cowboy casserole!! Brown an onion and if you want add some garlic. Throw in a tin of tomatoes, (if you have it, you can add a spoon of black treacle), add your tinned beans (any you have will do!!) and a stock cube and if you want - some pre -cooked sausage. You can also add some chopped up boiled egg to heat thru, just before you serve it with some crusty bread!!!

Yay for this thread - I love lentils and beans!

This is my fave - French style Sausage and Lentils. (GH years ago.....)

Start with 1lb good sausages. Cut each sausage into 3 or 4 pieces. In a large frying pan, in 2 tbsp olive oil, colour the sausages and 6 whole, peeled garlic cloves. Add 12oz (for 4 people) green lentils. Combine. Add 200g chunky chopped parsnips and 1.5Pt (900ml) chicken stock and simmer, covered for 20 mins. The lentils will absorb most of the liquid. Adjust seasoning.

Serve with a tomato and onion salad, and bread if you're not dieting

Just as lovely in the sunshine as it is in the winter - fabulous food...

I'm sure you could replace the parsnips for many things - swede, potato, or possibly squash? The vegetables will soak up the garlicky-sausage-ness. The garlic ultimately seems to dissapear into the sauce.