Very Veggie Lentil Bake
One of my most popular recipes ever, with almost entirely 5 star reviews! Its appearance doesn’t do it justice – this lentil bake is incredibly tasty, and so easy to adapt!
Note: In 2018 I made an Instant Pot version of this recipe! If you have an IP, you can check out that version here: Instant Pot very veggie lentil bake.
As a food blogger who needs to come up with new vegetarian recipes on an almost daily basis, I don’t often have a chance to revisit old favourites – I think you guys would have a riot if I just posted the same four recipes over and over (…do any of you actually care that much?). But occasionally I just think stuff it, I’m going to repost something I’ve made before. Because sometimes I just want to. You’ll cope.
This very veggie lentil bake is basically a revamped version of a really old lentil bake recipe I posted way back in February 2012 (who even remembers that far back anyway? Back when our biggest problem was the impending end of the world… ah, those were the days).
The recipe was so unbelievably good and the old photos were so unbelievably not good that I thought it deserved a revival. With a new, but equally silly, name. Back then, it was pretty much my favourite recipe in the world, and not much has changed.
💬 Recipe Reviews
A lovely reader recently reminded me of this recipe, and I was inspired to make it again. They tweeted me a photo and called it ‘absolutely their favourite dish’ – colour me chuffed! So just in case you think my own raving about this recipe sounds insincere, rest assured that at least one person agrees with me.
Of course, since I can never follow a recipe to the letter, even if it’s my own recipe, I did make a few minor changes to this version. I made it bigger, for one (it’s that good, you’ll be happy to have extra), and used slightly different veggies, because I was too lazy to go shopping. It’s pretty adaptable – just use whatever veggies you have on hand (I do love a good fridge clearer!).
You can skip the cheese if you’d prefer a vegan lentil bake, but it does add a lovely flavour and gives that crispy topping, which is always a major plus. It’s not exactly an attractive dish, but crispy cheese goes a long way to making anything look enticing.
Whatever you put in it, this very veggie lentil bake is a brilliant way to enjoy some of the most simple store cupboard ingredients!
Very Veggie Lentil Bake
If you’ve cooked this recipe, don’t forget to leave a star rating!
Print Pin Comment(if you suffer from allergies, please double check all ingredients before eating)
Ingredients
- 110 g red lentils (~ 1/2 cup)
- 75 g white rice (~ 1/4 cup)
- 650 ml vegetable stock (~ 2 1/2 cups), or 2 stock cubes made up in 650ml water
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 small leek or 1/2 large leek, sliced
- 1 bell pepper, diced fairly small (I used orange)
- 5 medium mushrooms, diced fairly small
- 1 small courgette (zucchini), or 1/2 large courgette, diced fairly small
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- Black pepper
- 90 g grated cheddar cheese (~ 1 cup)
Instructions
- Boil the lentils and rice for 15-20 minutes in the vegetable stock, stirring occasionally. You’ll need to stir constantly during the last 5 minutes or so, to ensure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Once they’re cooked, don’t drain the water, but instead continue stirring over the heat until enough water has boiled off for the mixture to resemble porridge.
- Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan, and add the chopped leek, pepper, mushrooms and courgette. Cook over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft.
- Heat the oven to 190°C (Gas Mark 5 / 375°F).
- Combine the cooked lentils and vegetables in a large mixing bowl, and add the paprika, cayenne pepper, and plenty of black pepper. Mix well.
- Transfer half of the mixture to a baking dish, and sprinkle over half of the grated cheese. Add the remaining lentil mixture, smooth out the top, and finish with the remaining cheese.
- Bake for around 25-30 minutes, until the cheese topping is golden brown and crispy.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
Love lentils? There are loads more vegetarian lentil recipes to inspire you here:
This recipe looks delicious! I would like to make it for my one year old daughter and ideally will double the recipe and then freeze portions of this. Does this recipe freeze well? If so, how would you do it? Thanks!!
Good idea, this would be a great one for kids! I’m pretty sure it freezes well – I’d cook it and wait for it to cool, then dollop it into portions on a baking tray (or in a cupcake tray), and freeze. Then when it’s frozen, you can put all the portions together in a tub or freezer bag, and they won’t stick together. You can defrost one portion at a time in the microwave. Check out numbers 4 and 5 in this post! https://www.easycheesyvegetarian.com/top-tips-for-baby-led-weaning/
You are the best! Thank you! Great idea to cut it and freeze that way. I’m setting up to make it now :)
Hope you enjoyed it! :)
I bake it in individual round Pyrex dishes, then freeze them. Works like a charm! I really enjoy this dish, and some additions I enjoy are black beans (instead of mushrooms) and 2 ears worth of cooked corn.
Great idea to make little mini ones!
I have made this now twice with my left over refrigerated veggies. I use brown rice instead of white, I also add a small onion with the leeks and adjust the spice as i love spicy things. But this alwasys comes out great and tastes even better the next couple of days.
Using leftover veggies is a brilliant idea! Glad you’ve enjoyed it :D
This was surprisingly tasty!! I didn’t have cayenne pepper so I used half a teaspoon of chilli powder and some dried chipotle chillis! It gave it a lovely warmth.
Will definitely be making again – me and my boyfriend just video called to make it together while we’re self isolating apart. He cut up his veg much chunkier than I did (mine is small cubes) but I think both ways work. I’m trying to eat less meat where I can and this is a great recipe for the repertoire – thanks for sharing!!
Thanks Sadie! So glad you both enjoyed it and I was able to help bring you together for a short while – must be so hard to be stuck apart! Hope you’re keeping well :)
This our new favourite family dinner, it’s absolutely delicious. I halved the amount of cayenne as was a bit too spicy for the kids the first time round. I love that you can add whatever vegetables you’ve got knocking around as well. Great way to get the kids eating lentils and a variety of veg.
Thank you Catherine!
I am trying to reduce meat intake after 60 years and this is the best recipe I’ve come across, so thank you. I did halve the spices and this worked well for us and I made a béchamel sauce to for the top to which I added 1 tsp of grain mustard and an additional 50 gms of cheese. It was absolutely delicious.
That sounds amazing, I love the idea of topping it with a bechamel sauce!
I made this last night and it was delicious! I’ve been cooking only vegetarian meals for the past 4 months now and my boyfriend said this was one of the tastiest meals I’ve made so far, and I agree. It will definitely be making its way into our regular rotation. I doubled the batch and got 6 good sized portions out of it, served it with a side of steamed broccoli. I only had regular paprika so I added in a couple dashes of liquid smoke and it was perfect!
Thanks so much Jessica! Really glad you enjoyed it – hopefully you’ll find lots more recipes here to inspire you! :D
Really delicious.
I have just become a vegetarian and your lentil bake recipe was wonderful. Instead of mushrooms I used broccoli, cos I didn’t have any mushrooms!
I have enough for tomorrow as well, my husband refuses to become veggie with me.
I fund it quite filling too although I only made half quantities.
Thank you so much for a wonderful website and the recipes.
Thanks Alison, so pleased you enjoyed it :) If you’re new to vegetarianism you might find this post helpful! https://www.easycheesyvegetarian.com/11-tips-for-new-vegetarians/
Personally there is far too much Cayenne & Paprika which basically killed the taste of anything. I couldn’t eat it and my brother in law even found it too unpleasant. Might try again with significantly less but unless you like these two spices use caution.
I’m really amazed that a teaspoon of paprika and half a teaspoon of cayenne, spread across 4 portions, seemed overpowering to you! I don’t think anybody else has said that. Anyway I hope you try it again but adjusted to your taste :)
Absolutely love this! We leave out the cayenne pepper so that the kids will eat it, but it’s still so so delicious!! Would give it 10 stars if I could!
Amazing!! Thank you so much :)
Wow that was really delicious! I have a new found appreciation of lentils now. Thank you so much :)
Awesome! Thanks Fran :)
This is a delicious recipe, particularly for a blustery fall day. I used brown rice instead of white, and sure I had it on the stove for a touch longer but it worked happily. I’m totally excited for the leftovers. Thanks!
You’re welcome, thanks for the comment! :)