Vegan lentil pasta with green asparagus

Going meatless on Monday again. The pasta is vegan, the vegetable salad has cheese, but is easily left out. If you make both dishes, it's enough for 3 to 4 people.

The vegetables are just a big plate of leftovers. It contains string beans, green asparagus, broad beans, olives, blue cheese, mint and almonds. Are corn flowers just for the looks.

Ingredients pasta:

• 300 gram pasta • 100 gram lentils • 1 can skinned tomatoes • 1 tbsp tomato puree • 300 ml vegetable broth • 1 onion • 3 garlic cloves • 2 chilli peppers • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar • salt and pepper •

1. Start with finely chopping your onion, garlic and chillies. If you don't like spicy food, use just 1 chilli or leave out the seeds.

2. Heat up some oil and saute your onions, garlic and chilli peppers. Add the tomato puree and stir for about a minute.

3. Add the canned tomatoes and the vegetable broth. Stir well and add the lentils. And balsamic. I used dried lentils with a cooking time of 30 minutes. However, this is a great time for water. The lentils take longer to cook in sauce. Mine ended up simmering in the sauce for 50 minutes.

You can also use pre-cooked lentils. You only need to simmer the sauce for 10 minutes, but half the amount of vegetable broth. Because the lentils won't soak up liquid, the sauce could end up too wet if you use too much water. It won't really change the flavour in the end.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in your cooked pasta.

If you don't want to have a vegan meal, you could add chicken, minced meat or even canned tuna.

Enjoy!