Tomato Pasta #5 | Mixed grains with spiced tomato-braised greens
Need a new idea for a wholesome family meal? Here's a recipe for you.
Rice, pulses, pasta … or all three?
Despite the title, my intention for this Tomato Pasta column was not to keep coming back to tomato pasta; to instead find alternatives to our staple, budget and time balancing, always crowd-pleasing weeknight family meal. You can read more about the project here.
On the one hand, this week’s attempt falls short: quite clearly, there are tinned tomatoes, and there is pasta.
But, on the other, it’s very different to the dish my son normally hoovers up: as well as pasta, there is also rice, there are lentils, and the tomato sauce is spiced (coriander, cumin and sweet spices too) and wraps itself around soft green beans. I also tried to stealthily introduce an additional vegetable via the medium of Greek-style yoghurt (reader, it worked).
The dish was sparked by a craving for Egyptian koshari — where grains of rice and lentils are mixed with strands of vermicelli, topped with elbow macaroni, chickpeas, a spiced tomato sauce and moreish, intensely savoury crisp-fried onions. The ingredients are humble, but the flavours and textures are nuanced, nourishing and incredibly satisfying.
However, in all honesty, in my house chickpeas often get rejected, fried onions would add a step that takes this slightly beyond practical for mid-week post-school hanger-sating, and I’d have to find another way to get a few vegetables on the table.
So I mixed things up a little, still aiming for a mix of carbs, but using fregola as the pasta (such a pleasing texture), braising green beans in the tomato sauce, and adding that contrast of cool, sharp, grated courgettes and yoghurt.
Proper koshari involves quite a few pots and pans, so I’ve tried to streamline things a bit here. It’s still not a one potter. But it’s manageable, it’s economical, and wholesome. Give it a go?
A few notes on ingredients and method
I used pre-cooked lentils (and suggest you do too) — partly to reduce cooking steps and time, but also because I always seem to have a tin of them at the back of the cupboard. If you prefer, you could make this even more thrifty than it already is by using dry lentils. Rinse them first, then cook for 10 minutes in one of the saucepans of boiling water, before adding the rice to them.
If you don’t have fregola, you could use any small, stubby-shaped pasta (elbow macaroni, orzo, ditaloni, and of course giant couscous and mograbia are pretty similar). That said, the fregola did work really well. Seek out some toasted Sardinian fregola (in the UK, Belazu toasted fregola is great and is on Ocado; ditto this one via Sous Chef).
If all is under control and you fancy shallow frying onions as an additional garnish, go for it.
The Recipe
To make the final act of meal preparation a less involved one, you could happily prepare the tomato-braised beans and/or the courgettes earlier in the day.
And if you have leftovers of any or all of the three elements, they’ll work well as a base for a Tupperware lunch the following day.
Serves 4
For the tomato-braised beans
2 x 400g cans finely crushed tomatoes (I favour these, or buy tinned whole tomatoes and crush using your hands)
300g fine green beans, cut to 4cm lengths
20g salted butter
1 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 tsp caster (fine) sugar
1 tsp white wine vinegar
Generous pinch of salt
Generous grind black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
Scant 1/3 tsp ground cinnamon
Scant 1/3 tsp ground cardamom (if you have it)
Generous grating nutmeg
2 whole cloves
For the base
175g basmati rice
240g drained, cooked green or brown lentils
150g fregola
For the courgettes
1 medium-large courgette, 250-300g
Generous pinch of salt
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
8 tbsp Greek-style yoghurt
Generous grind black pepper
Generous grating of nutmeg
Begin with the tomato-braised beans. Empty the contents of the tomato tins into a medium-sized saucepan set over a medium-high heat. Fill one of the tins with cold water and add that to the pan. Add the cut beans, then the remaining sauce ingredients and leave to simmer energetically for 25 minutes — until sauce is much reduced, intense in flavour and the beans dulled in colour and soft.
Bring two additional saucepans of well-salted water to the boil.
Meanwhile, coarsely grate the courgette into a boil. Add a generous pinch of salt, mix well, wait for a minute or 2, then add the vinegar, yoghurt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir and set aside.
Rinse the rice, then add to one of the pans of boiling water. Cook for 10 minutes, until just tender, add the drained lentils, then strain both through a fine sieve. Return to the saucepan, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to steam for 5 minutes. Use a fork to fluff-up just before serving.
Cook the fregola in the other (around 12-15 minutes), drain through a colander and set aside, stirring once or twice so it doesn’t clump together.
Spoon the rice and lentils over a large platter. Top with the fregola, then the tomato-braised beans. Serve at the table, ensuring you get plenty of everything onto each plate, plus a few significant dollops of the courgette.
Liked this? Support Rocket & Squash, A Cook’s Digest by becoming a paid subscriber. Please also feel free to share the article with anyone you think will like this recipe. And, finally, have you got a copy of my latest cookbook Good Eggs? Loads of speedy, nourishing, wholesome family meal ideas there too.
See you next week, Ed.