While most medieval peasantry were not feasting on meat every meal, they probably didn’t cater for vegans either. Along with vegetables, a typical medieval diet in south Wales would have included a lot of cheese, eggs and fish.

However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t dishes we can create now to cater for vegan diets using ingredients available to people living in the 14th Century.

Over the August Bank Holiday we set up camp at the magnificent Caerphilly Castle. One of the dishes I prepared on the Sunday was a lovely mushroom and lentil main. It’s very simple, tasty and easy to recreate at home.

What you’ll need:

Half a kilo of mushrooms – I used closed cap mushrooms but you can mix this up dependent on the strength of flavour you want

Two cans of green lentils (you can soak dried lentils, but I’m a bit of a cheat)

Quarter of a cup of olive oil

A pinch of black pepper

Mixed herbs (I used a combination of basil, rosemary and thyme)

These amounts serve 4-6 people. Halve the amounts for a good portion for two.

Method:

Soak the lentils in half of the olive oil. Add in all of the black pepper and herbs. Mix together and leave for two hours Chop the mushrooms Heat the remainder of the olive oil in a pan over the hob/ barbeque/ fire pit Fry the mushrooms in the pan As they begin to go brown, add in the lentils Stir the mix together until it is warmed right through Serve

Delicious!