I thought that I would make this dish this week’s Recipe of the Week as a result of the overwhelming response from people requesting information about it. Many thanks to everyone who has contacted me – I managed to achieve a personal best of number of views on my blog! I hope you all enjoy making this as much as I did. Paul.

Ingredients

For The Stew

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

200g new potatoes, quartered with skins left on

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into fine batons

100g red split lentils

50g tinned or frozen sweetcorn

50g frozen petit pois

1 x 400g tin good quality butterbeans, drained

Handful fresh spinach leaves

2 tsp smoked sweet paprika

2 tsp Ras-el-Hanout

400ml good quality hot vegetable stock from bouillon

2 tbs olive oil

Salt and pepper

For the Cornbread

125g cornmeal or fine polenta

135g plain flour

2 tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Black pepper

150g fresh sweetcorn

2 tbs olive oil

4 spring onions

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

280ml soya milk

50g soya margarine

Method

To Make the Stew

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and when hot, add the onions and garlic to sauté for approximately 5 minutes.

2. Add the paprika and Ras-el-Hanout and stir for a further minute.

3. Add the potatoes and carrots and sauté for a further 5 minutes.

4. Add the lentils and the rest of the vegetables (excluding the spinach and butterbeans) and sauté for a further 2 minutes.

5. Pour over the hot stock, bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently, covered, for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Add the spinach, butterbeans and seasoning and stir in on a gentle heat for 2 minutes. Serve immediately.

To Make the Cornbread

1. Preheat the oven to 220 C. Grease a medium-size baking tin with olive oil. To remove the corn from the cob, stand it on it’s end on a board and cut downwards with a sharp knife, as close to the core as you can, cutting off the kernels.

2. In a bowl, combine the flour, polenta, baking powder, salt, bicarbonate of soda and pepper. Stir in the sweetcorn, onions and chilli. Beat together the melted soya margarine & milk. Pour into the dry ingredients stirring, until everything is just combined. A few lumps in the batter are fine at this stage.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place in the oven. Bake until the top is golden and the edges have slightly pulled away from the sides – about 20 – 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for a few minutes before cutting into squares. Serve warm