Lentil "Meatbals" With Tomato Sauce And Basmati Rice

Ingredients:
200 g brown lentils
200 g brown basmati rice
4 medium tomatoes
3 red peppers
1 carrot
600ml vegetable broth
a few sprigs of fresh parsley
sprig of fresh oregano
1 tsp savory
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp ground fenugreek
½ tsp black or white pepper
½ tsp red pepper (could be smoked)
½ tsp Asafetida
1 bay leaf
Himalayan salt (to taste)

 

Preparation:

Soak the lentils overnight, then rinse under running water.In sufficientquantity of waterputthelentils to boilfor 20-30 minutes. Once ready rinse using a strainer and let drain very well - it's very important for the good texture of the meatballs.

Soak rice overnight or even more preferably for about 20 hours. Wash it well. Put in a cooker vegetable broth (or water) in a ratio of approximately 3: 1 with rice. Once the water boils, add the rice and bay leaf and cook for 20-30 minutes. Remove the cooker from the heat, add salt to taste and leave to cook for another 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. From the resulting quantity of rice take part equal to ¼ of the amount of cooked lentils and without rinsing it beat well with a blender until it becomes a sticky paste. The remaining quantity of rice rinse and drain well.

Cut the tomatoes into quarters and remove their seeds. Cut red peppers into halves and also remove their seeds. Cut carrots into several pieces.

In a cooker with a steam grid, fill water up to the grid. When the water in the cooker boils, add chopped vegetables and cook for about 15 minutes.
Once the vegetables are cooked let them stew for another 10 minutes. Remove the skins of tomatoes and peppers.

Beat until a homogeneous mixture in a blender the tomatoes, peppers, carrots and a little of the broth obtained by boiling them. Put the resulting sauce in a cooker over low heat with a sprig of fresh oregano until it boils. Turn off the heat and simmer the sauce for about 10 minutes, then remove the sprig of oregano.

Put well-drained cooked lentils in a processor or blender and shake once or twice. Remove the mixture into a bowl and mix it with sticky rice paste. Knead well and add savory, cumin, fenugreek, black (or white) pepper, red (or smoked) pepper, Asafetida, few sprigs of chopped fresh parsley and Himalayan salt. From the mixture form circle meatballs, the size of a ping pong ball. Bake on a silicone mat or baking sheet in a preheated 180-degree oven for about 20 minutes. Carefully remove the ready meatballs. Let them cool down.

Serve them topped with warm tomato sauce and rice.
Optionally, you can sprinkle with parsley.