Can I Use Ready-Cooked Green And Puy Lentils For The Vegan Spag Bol?

Our answer

Nigella's Vegan Spag Bol is a satisfying mixture of vegetables with red, green and puy lentils. The flavour of the sauce is boosted by the addition of dried porcini mushrooms, which add bosky umami. Nigella uses dried lentils and they are simmered until soft. The green and puy lentils add substance and texture whilst the red lentils help to thicken the sauce.

We suspect you could use drained lentils from a can and ready-cooked puy lentils from a pouch, but it will not particularly reduce the cooking time as you still need to cook the red lentils thoroughly, which takes at least 30 minutes, and the sauce needs to cook slowly to develop its flavour. So overall it may be more economical to use all dried lentils. If you only have access to ready-cooked lentils then you would probably (in the UK) need to use a 400g can of green lentils (which yields about 265g when drained) and a 250g pouch of cooked puy lentils. Reduce the water to 1/2 can as you will not need as much water if using some cooked lentils, though keep an eye on the sauce and add exra water if it does become too dry and start catching on the bottom of the pan. Add the cooked lentils after the sauce has had its first 30 minutes of cooking, so that they can absorb the flavours of the sauce as it simmers.