food to glow

Lentil Kibbeh Pie is a vegan riff on Yotam Ottolenghi’s delicious Open Kibbeh from his cookbook, Jerusalem. This layered, savory open pie is easy to make by baking layers of bulgar wheat, seasoned lentils, mushrooms and sumac-spiked tahini sauce. Full of herbs and warm spices, too. It is a perfect for dinner, to snack on, and even taking on picnics.

Cooking the {cook}books

Having plenty of time on my hands lately has made for more adventurous stints in the kitchen. Since March, I’ve been folding down pages from a pile of cookbooks, and working through them. Diana Henry’s latest, as well as this gorgeous Romanian cookbook from Irina Georgescu, have been favourite additions to my obscenely-enormous cookbook collection. I shudder to think how much I’ve spent over the years! But recently I thumbed through an old favourite, making the above-mentioned dish, from the chef who only needs one name for recognition, Ottolenghi.

Andrew and I both absolutely loved the deep, homey flavours, scooping up every morsel with a lettuce leaf pinched between our fingers. The layers of bulgur wheat, seasoned lamb and tahini sauce were easy to put together – even if it wasn’t quite a 30-minute meal. But that’s kind of okay in the drifting, amorphous time we’re in right now. Meals that are easy enough, just requiring a bit of time, not too much skill, but adventurous enough to satisfy a desire for different. And to kill time. Because, let’s face it, life is a bit samey. Not for everyone, of course. The essential workers knocking their pans in to keep the rest of us safe, healthy, fed and transported, they aren’t bored, I’m sure.

But for unemployed foodie-types like me, a new dinner recipe can be as good as a rest. A rest from tedium.

What is Lentil Kibbeh Pie like?

And that is what this vegan recipe is for. Even while I was eating the original recipe from Ottolenghi I was thinking of how I might give it a fiber-rich makeover. I knew I would need to amp up the spices – lentils can be so dull! And I wanted it to be as delicious warm from the oven as it would be to pick at if, god forbid, there was a leftover slab lurking in the kitchen. I also wished it to only gently nod to the meatiness of the original. Always I want my vegan and vegetarian dishes to be themselves rather than an imitation.

In truth, I thought I would have to cook this recipe a few times. I tasted as I cooked, of course, adding some surprising but useful elements to pull it all together. And I think it must have been first-time lucky. Well, at least we really liked it – you will have to make it and see for yourself. The texture is slightly toothsome from the mint-flecked bulgur wheat crust, and soft from the lentil and mushroom topping. And not forgetting the crunch from creamy pine nuts. As for the taste, this lentil kibbeh pie balances many of the spices so redolent of the Middle East. And includes such odd bedfellows as pomegranate molasses and a whisper of umami-heavy Marmite (the latter is totally optional and, of course, very British!). You might have to trust me. 😉

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What you need for this recipe

An 8-inch diameter loose-bottomed or spring-form baking tin

Bulgur wheat (blitz in a blender to get typical coarse bulgur wheat fine) – or couscous

Garlic

Onion

Olive oil

Mushrooms

Cooked firm lentils, like Puy or Beluga (I use Merchant Gourmet Beluga Lentils )

Allspice, cinnamon, cumin and coriander

Pine nuts – these tend to be cheapest at Middle Eastern and Asian supermarkets

Fresh parsley and mint – as above

Tahini paste – or you could use hummus!

Sumac – optional

Pomegranate molasses

Marmite or Vegemite – optional (adds depth)

Putting it together is straightforward, as shown above in the slideshow. Full instructions in the recipe card, below. If you need to make it lower in fat, see the recipe card for how you might do so.

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What is a kibbeh anyway?

Meaning “shape of a ball” in Arabic, kibbeh are typically meat and bulgur wheat balls, stuffed with even more meat, sweet spices and pine nuts, then deep fried. Tasty torpedos, kibbeh are superbly crisp, savory snacks. But helluva tricky to make. Hence, a deconstructed version kindly created by Mr Ottolenghi for us in the West is welcome. Although, I daresay with all of this time on our hands we could have a go at a more authentic kibbeh recipe.

So, will you give this a try? I pinky-promise that you will not only enjoy the process of making this lovely dish, but will scoop up every last morsel. Perhaps not, however, with a lettuce leaf. 🙂

I served my second testing of this vegan lentil kibbeh pie with homemade baba ganoush (recipe soon!) and a very lemony tomato, red onion and cucumber salad, with loads of herbs from the garden. And lettuce leaves.