Recipe: Lentil meatballs with roasted cherry tomato sauce

4.3-5 9

How to Make:

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan forced. Place the tomatoes in a large baking dish. Sprinkle with the thyme and half the garlic. Drizzle with 1 tsp oil. Season. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 40 minutes or until the tomatoes have softened.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tsp oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Cook the onion and celery, stirring, for 3-4 minutes or until softened. Add mushroom and remaining garlic and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes or until mushroom is golden. Set aside to cool.
Process the lentils in a food processor until crumbs form. Add the onion mixture, basil, rice, flour, lemon rind and parmesan. Pulse until combined. Season. Use clean hands to roll tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls. You should have about 24 balls.
Heat remaining 2 tsp oil in the frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook the meatballs, turning, for 3-4 minutes or until golden.
Add meatballs to the dish with the tomatoes. Bake, uncovered, for a further 10 minutes. Sprinkle with extra basil sprigs and parmesan. Serve with rocket leaves.

Time for preparing:

50 min.

Servings:

750g cherry truss tomatoes, removed from the vine, halved
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tablesoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, trimmed, diced
300g mushrooms, chopped
400g can lentils, rinsed, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, plus basil sprigs, extra, to serve
90g (1/2 cup) Uncle Ben's® Microwave Brown Rice, heated following packet instructions
2 tablespoons coconut flour
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan, plus 2 tablespoons, extra, to serve
Rocket, to serve