A recently published study by the World Health Organisation concluded that eating more fibre reduces the chance of heart disease and early death. I’ve been conscious of how much fibre my family are getting in their diets since a relative contracted diverticulisis a few years ago following a switch to a low-carb diet.  The recommended daily portion of fibre for an adult is 30g, and for a child (aged 5-11) is 20g a day. That is actually quite a lot of fibre to fit in per day, and I’ve been trying to think of ways to increase our fibre intake as a family.

Legumes (chickpeas, lentils, beans, peas) are brilliant sources of fibre, and luckily my children tend to eat these really well, so lentil based meals are becoming more of a regular feature in our house.

This stew is a super simple, perfect weeknight meal- it’s very easy to make but it really tastes good- my first experimental batch for the children resulted in clean plates (rare!). I served it up alongside a wholemeal pitta, which went perfectly. I’ve cooked similar recipes with sausages before, and if you fancy this dish as a side it goes really well with sausages, chicken, lamb, and game meats such as partridge and pheasant.

I’ve used uncooked lentils in this, but if you wanted to speed it up you could use tinned lentils and halve the cooking time to allow the potatoes and carrots to cook, or even tinned potatoes which would make it a 15 minute meal!

Would you like to see more lentil recipes?