Spicy Spelt Grain Tomato Stew: 3 ingredients: under £1 per serve

Spicy Spelt Grain stew or soup if you add a little water, is a super easy dinner recipe. My spelt stew is a perfect mid-week meal for then leftovers for lunch the next day. I fell in love with this easy Italian style Spelt stew while holidaying in Italy. I bought a packet of soup mix, with spelt grain and lentils and had a jar of pasta sauce. I made up this recipe with the limited ingredients I had. I can't find the Italian soup mix in the UK but have adapted to make it with dried red lentils and spelt grain. We love this delicious, tasty and easy recipe, and we enjoy eating this at least once a week. It's easy on the digestion, budget-friendly, and I could almost make this with my eyes closed.

My spicy spelt stew recipe has a few options. Firstly you could make this recipe using a store-bought pasta sauce for a quick and easy lunch or light evening meal. Secondly, you could add in onions, garlic, a chopped carrot if I have one.

Feel free to add more vegetables to this recipe. I love lentils so I combined red lentils with the spelt grain, if you don't like lentils leave them out and add more vegetables like zucchini, celery, spinach and or capsicum (red pepper). My Spelt grain stew is a hearty and nutritious meal served with a simple salad or homemade bread. If you can't buy Spelt grain then you could probably use quinoa or rice but I haven't made it like this.

We prefer this thick and more like a hearty stew, but if you want it more soup style just add more water. This spelt stew is perfect served with fresh homemade toasted bread or a simple salad or even just baby spinach leaves and a little shaved parmesan cheese.

Top benefits

Cheap to make*
One-pot
3 ingredients
Easy
Healthy
High fibre, high protein
Vegan/vegetarian
Easy on the digestion
Adaptable
Takes = 40 to 60 minutes
Makes = 4 serves

Base Ingredients

Red Lentils washed – 100g (1/2 cup)
Spelt grain, washed (or brown rice, quinoa or buckwheat grain) – 100g (1/2 cup)
Spicy pasta sauce jar (I love Arrabiata "angry" chilli sauce) – 1 x jar 400g
Water 1 to 2 jars or more depending on your likes – about 380ml x 2

Alternative Extra Ingredients

Small carrot diced (optional)
Tinned crushed tomatoes x 400g can (instead of pasta sauce)
Salt and pepper to taste
Chilli flakes
Dried Basil – 3/4 teaspoon
Dried Oregano – 3/4 teaspoon
Water – 1 to 2 cups

Method

Step 1
MEASURE out lentils and spelt grain then wash in a colander until the water runs clear.

Step 2 if adding in onions, garlic and carrots (skip this step for the base recipe)
GENTLY sauteé in a little olive oil chopped onions until soft, then add in the garlic and carrots if using and cook for a minute.

Step 3
HEAT a tablespoon of olive oil, then add in washed spelt, lentils, spices, tinned tomatoes and approx. 1 to 2 cups of water (I use the jar from the sauce or tinned tomatoes to rinse it out). Bring to boil then simmer for about 40-6o minutes until the grains are soft. In my recent video, I simmered this for 45 minutes then popped the lid on with the heat off, then it was the perfect thickness to serve later on. We don't mind this warm and not too hot too.

*Cost per meal

Spelt grain 500g = £3.10/5 = £0.62 per 100g (1/2 cup)
Red lentils 1kg = £2.11/10 = £0.21 per 100g (1/2 cup)
Pasta Sauce 400g = £2.25

Cost Summary

Grains = £0.62
Lentils = £0.21
Sauce = £2.25`
Total = £3.08