Marrakech Lentils

Sometimes we need to atone for our sins. Perhaps you spent a weekend bending your plastic with some serious shopping, inhaled an inordinate amount of the alcohol variety, spent the better part of your Sunday in a horizontal position watching The Office or consumed your body weight in vanilla crunch ice cream. I may or may not have indulged in most of these activities over the past two days. If you follow my tweets, you probably have a pretty good idea of what went down this weekend.


Suffice to say that I felt it fitting to present you with this wholesome lentil-y dish to atone for my sins on this stark Monday morning. 'Cause life's all about balance you know?

Luckily for you (and me) this isn't one of those boring bland lentil meals. While it may appear all holier-than-thou at first glance, these marrakech lentils features an intriguing mix of spices, salty olives, tart apricots and sweet-like-sugar yellow sultanas. So you can appear all innocent on the outside, but still live the high-life. Win-win, right?


Side-note: No, I did not actually whip this up on the weekend. I did however have the leftovers in the fridge and let me tell you, I dove into that like a crazy woman yesterday. My sinful side enjoys leftovers, okay?

Marrakech Lentils
Adapted from Coconut Connections
Serves 4 - 6


1 tbsp coconut oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2.5 cm (1 inch) fresh ginger, peeled & grated
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp smoky paprika
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
15 dried apricots, chopped
1/4 cup yellow sultanas (raisins)
a few sprigs chopped parsley
1 1/2 cups brown lentils
4 cups vegetable stock
10 black olives, pitted and chopped


1. Heat coconut oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, frying gently until softened (5 - 8 minutes).
2. Add ginger, cumin, paprika, allspice, cinnamon, apricots and sultanas and fry another minute or two until fragrant.
3. Add parsley and lentils and stir to coat in oil and spices, then add vegetable stock, turn heat up and bring to the boil.
4. Turn heat down, partially cover and allow to cook over low heat for 25 minutes. Add chopped olives, stir through and cook another 10 - 15 minutes or until cooked through.


Nutritional info (per serving): Calories 286.1., Total fat 5.9 g, Saturated fat 3.8 g, Polyunsaturated fat 0.5 g, Monounsaturated fat 1.1 g, Cholesterol 0.0 mg, Sodium 272.6 mg, Potassium 792.7 mg, Total carbohydrate 46.4 g, Dietary fiber 14.3 g, Sugars 8.2 g, Protein 15.4 g

Good source of: Folate 74.0 %, Manganese 45.7 %, Phosphorus 31.2 %, Copper 24.8 %,