Lunch

Mushroom and Lentil Ragu on Soft Polenta

Name: Mushroom and Lentil Ragu on Soft Polenta
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 1 serving
Ingredients: 200 g Mushrooms; 150 g Cooked lentils; 200 g Chopped tomatoes, tinned; 60 g Onion; 2 cloves, about 6 g Garlic; A few sprigs Fresh thyme; 5 g Olive oil; 40 g Cornmeal polenta; 250 ml Vegetable stock; 15 g Parmesan; To taste Salt; Plenty Black pepper

Mushrooms and lentils cooked down with tomato and thyme, spooned over soft polenta with parmesan beaten through. 29 g of protein for 540 kcal.

Calories: 540kcal
Protein: 29g
Fat: 12g
Carbs: 79g

Per serving, makes 1. 25 minutes of work. Published 8 September 2026.

Allergens

Milk
Celery

Nearly every stock cube and pot lists celery. Home-made stock without it carries no flag.

Flags follow UK labelling rules and come from the ingredients as listed, not from any particular brand. Check the packet before cooking for somebody with an allergy.

Ingredients

Mushrooms200 g
Cooked lentils150 g
Cooked weight, green or brown. A pouch is already this.
Chopped tomatoes, tinned200 g
Onion60 g
Garlic2 cloves, about 6 g
Fresh thymeA few sprigs
Olive oil5 g
Cornmeal polenta40 g
Quick-cook polenta. The traditional kind takes forty minutes of stirring. Dry weight.
Vegetable stock250 ml
Made up from a cube or a pot.
Parmesan15 g
SaltTo taste
Black pepperPlenty

Method

Fry the sliced mushrooms in the oil over a high heat for six minutes until they have released their water, it has cooked off, and they are browning. Add the onion and cook for five minutes more, then the garlic and thyme.
Add the lentils and tomatoes, season, and simmer for ten minutes until thick.
Bring the stock to the boil, pour in the polenta in a stream while whisking, and cook for three to five minutes until it thickens and pulls from the side of the pan. Beat in the parmesan and plenty of pepper.
Spread the polenta on a plate and spoon the ragu over.

Worth knowing

Mushrooms have to brown before anything else goes in. Crowded or wet, they boil, and boiled mushrooms taste of nothing.
Forty grams of dry polenta is 144 kcal and swells to a full plate. It sets solid as it cools, so serve it straight away.

Other lunch recipes that share ingredients with this one, or every lunch between 450 and 600 calories a serving.

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Macros are calculated from the weights listed above using standard food composition values, and will shift with your own brands and measuring. Weigh what you can. This is a recipe, not dietary advice. The full health disclaimer is below.