Second course Veggies stuffed with lentils and Farofa

Farofa is a meal made of roasted cassava. In Brazil, where farofa is particularly popular, typical recipes call for raw cassava flour to be toasted with abundant butter, vegetable oil or olive oil, salt, bacon, onions, garlic, sausage, olives, and nuts until golden brown. 

Farofa is a stamp of Brazilian cultural identity. As people, being Brazilian is a farofa of multiple origin backgrounds that make our people so unique and diverse.

It is said that good farofa makes what is few looking like more, makes cold what is too hot to eat, and makes anything taste better.

 Farofa can be used for main dishes to desserts and during Christmas celebrations in Brazil is often used as stuff for poultry, and pork. Otherwise, we present here a vegan recipe of vegetables filled with lentils and farofa. 

In this recipe, we are using the Farofa de Natal from Jungle Brazil Catering, which is vegan and has nuts and dried fruits which bring another level of flavour to the recipe. 

The small lentils feel earthy and meaty and are packed with protein.  When the farofa is added to the mixture, it becomes a rich couscous, connecting all flavours and making it delightful. 

The vegetables will be roasted which will bring that Christmas roast smell, they can either get served hot from the oven, but can also cool down and be served at room temperature.

Vegetables stuffed with lentils and Farofa

Ingredients (for 6 portions)

1 courgette medium

1 aubergine medium

1 big tomato 

1 big white onion

2 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

4 cloves of garlic

1 cup of cooked pupil lentils

1 tablespoon of chopped spring onions

1 tablespoon of chopped parsley

1/2 lemon juice

1 teaspoon of dried Oregano

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

1/2 cup of Farofa de Natal

1/2 cup Olive oil 

How to prepare

Preheat the oven to 210°C.

Carve all vegetables carefully and take out their inside flesh so we can stuff them later. 

Save all vegetable flesh and chop it nicely into small cubes. Chop also an extra red bell pepper and 2 cloves of garlic. Place it all in a bowl and add the herbs - spring onions, parsley, oregano and lemon juice. Season it all with salt and half of the olive oil.  

Drop the lentils in the bowl, toss it together with the vegetables and add the farofa at last.

Stuff the vegetables carefully with the mixture, placing them on a tray (choose a nice one so you can serve them on it) with some olive oil on the bottom. 

Drop the two remaining cloves of garlic, more olive oil and some flakes of salt (you can go wild and drop some Jungle Brazil Chimichurri if you want) on top of the vegetable when you finish arranging them on the tray. Pop the tray into the oven and bake it for 40 minutes or until the vegetables get soft and brown roasted.