Rice 'n' spice: lentil 'risotto' with roasted spiced veg

I hesitate to use the word risotto here: it's certainly not a dish an Italian would recognise. Anyway, lentils and rice are great together, so I thought I'd try to find a different way of cooking them. The result is almost a savoury porridge, with some brightly-coloured spiced vegetables on top. But if you prefer, you could just cook the rice in a separate pan and have the lentils like a daal alongside.

Feel free to vary the vegetables according to what takes your fancy and what you have around.

Ingredients

Serves four

200g brown rice
200g red lentils
2 tsp garam masala
Half a teaspoon chilli powder, or to taste
Piece of cinnamon stick

Four medium carrots, cut into chunks
300g broccoli florets (weighed after removing the thick stalk), fresh or frozen
2 onions
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds

Method

Heat the oven to gas mark 6/ 200C /400F.

Crush the cumin and coriander seeds in a mortar and pestle. Put the carrots and onion in a roasting tin with the oil, cumin and coriander. Stir to mix. Roast for about 20 minutes, then add the broccoli and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.

While the vegetables are in the oven, put the rice, lentils, garam masala, chilli and cinnamon in a large pan. Cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for about half an hour, or until the rice and lentils are cooked. Keep an eye on them to check they are not getting too dry, and add a little more water if so.The lentils will probably break up to give a porridge-like consistency. Taste and season or add more spices if you think necessary. Serve with the roasted vegetables on top.