Vegetarian Bobotie
A vegetarian twist on the South African classic bobotie.
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked lentils I used a ½ cup of brown lentils and a ½ cup red lentils
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 tbsp medium curry powder
- 1 red chilli (optional) chillies are difficult to gauge, I used one whole chilli, pips removed. Feel free to use as much or as little as you want
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
- 1 tbsp ginger, peeled and chopped You can use fresh ginger, but I still had ginger left from the last time I made ginger ale and chopped that up.
- 2 med carrots, peeled and grated
- 1 large baby marrow, washed and grated
- 1 med ripe tomato
- 3 tbsp chutney
- 10 ml coconut blossom sugar or any other sweetener
- ½ cup chopped fresh coriander
- salt and pepper to taste
Savoury custard topping
- ¼ cup full-cream plain yoghurt
- ¼ cup unsweetened soy milk or milk, or any other milk alternative
- 2 x-large eggs
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
- Start off by adding about two cups of water to the lentils and bring them to a boil. Boil until soft, but not mushy. Do not add salt at this stage. Salt prevents your lentils from cooking soft.
- When the lentils are done, rinse them in a colander and set aside.
- In a large pot, heat the butter and oil and gently fry the onion, curry powder, chilli, garlic, and ginger on medium heat.
- Add the carrots and baby marrow and saute for 10-15min until the veg is very soft and any liquid has evaporated. It helps keeping the heat on medium to prevent burning.
- Add the chopped tomato and fry again for 5min.
- Then add the remaining ingredients (chutney, sugar, coriander, and cooked lentils) and once again fry until the mixture has very little moisture.
- Season to taste
- In a separate bowl, mix all the ingredients (except the bay leaves) for the topping.
- Set the oven to 180° Celcius.
- Move the lentil mixture from the pot to an oven-proof dish. Make sure to smooth the top of the mixture.
- Gently pour the custard topping on top of the lentil mix.
- Place the bay leaves on top of the mixture (you can make a lovely little arrangement if you want).
- Place in the oven and bake until the custard is set and lightly browned (around 35-40min).
Notes
- I used the leftover ginger from the last time I made ginger ale.
- I made the mistake to add the bay leaves to my egg-mixture. Don't do that, the mixture had a slightly bitter taste around the leaves, rather place it on top of the mix.
- Serve with a basic green salad and/or traditional yellow rice.