Vegetarian Casserole

Ingredients

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• 1 vegetable broth 🛒
• 1 Onion
• 3 clove Garlic
• 1 tsp Paprika
• ½ tsp Cumin
• 1 tblsp Thyme
• 3 Medium Carrots
• 2 small stalks Celery
• 1 Red Pepper
• 1 Yellow Pepper
• 2 x 400g tins Tomato
• 1 cup Vegetable Stock Cube
• 2 sliced Courgettes
• 2 sprig Thyme
• 8¾ oz Lentils

Method

1. Heat the vegetable broth in a large, heavy-based pan. Add the onions and cook gently for 5 – 10 mins until softened.
2. Add the garlic, spices, dried thyme, carrots, celery and peppers and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes, stock, courgettes and fresh thyme and cook for 20 - 25 minutes.
4. Take out the thyme sprigs.
5. Stir in the lentils and bring back to a simmer.
6. Serve with wild and white basmati rice, mash or quinoa.

About the ingredients

vegetable broth

A salt-free, all-purpose vegetable broth. Onion, carrots, celery, garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, kombu, parsley.

Onion Allium cepa

Bulb vegetable, eaten raw or cooked. Whole minimally-processed plant food; 'organic' refers to cultivation only. WFPB-canonical.

Garlic Allium sativum

Garlic itself is canonical, but extract denotes a concentrated/isolated derivative outside the whole-food canon. Marketed as natural/healthy supplement, hence mistaken-as-WFPB flag.

Paprika Capsicum annuum

Ground spice made from dried, milled red peppers (Capsicum annuum), ranging sweet to hot/smoked. Whole-fruit powder, no additions. Source of vitamin A (carotenoids), vitamin E, capsaicin. Minimally processed whole-food spice, WFPB canonical.

Cumin Cuminum cyminum

Dried seeds of Cuminum cyminum, an apiaceous herb. Whole spice, mechanically harvested and dried; matrix intact whether whole or ground. Canonical whole-plant seed spice.

Thyme Thymus vulgaris

Fresh or dried leaf+tender stem. Bare name is the herb, not the distilled essential oil.

Carrots Daucus carota

Whole taproot, eaten raw or cooked. Orange domesticated form is the familiar one; heirloom landraces range purple to white.

Celery Apium graveolens

Crisp, fibrous leaf stalks (petioles) of Apium graveolens, eaten raw or cooked. Very low caloric density, high water and fiber; provides vitamin K, folate, potassium. Whole, intact vegetable, fully canonical to WFPB.

Red Pepper Piper nigrum

Dried unripe fruit (peppercorns) of the pepper vine, used whole or ground. A whole dried spice with nothing added or extracted. Canonical WFPB aromatic.

Tomato Solanum lycopersicum

Whole fruit of the tomato plant (botanically a berry, culinary vegetable). 'Organic' denotes a farming method, not a distinct ingredient. Raw whole fruit, rich in lycopene, vitamin C, potassium. WFPB-canonical.

Vegetable Stock Cube

Dehydrated bouillon cube: concentrated salt base with dried vegetables, yeast extract, often palm oil, sugar and flavor enhancers. Heavily processed formulation built around refined salt and fat; noncanonical.

Courgettes Cucurbita pepo

Summer squash harvested immature; eaten whole (skin, flesh, seeds) raw or cooked. Botanically a fruit (berry/pepo), culinary vegetable. No processing. Low calorie, high water, vitamin C and potassium. WFPB canonical.

Lentils Lens culinaris

Common whole brown lentils — small dried legume seeds that cook quickly without soaking, holding shape for stews and dals. High in protein, fiber, folate, and iron. Whole legume — WFPB canonical.