Ricotta Bake – Let the oven do the work
- Updated on Jul 11, 2019
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Some recipes just sing out to us. This ricotta bake is one of those recipes.
It has absolutely everything that makes a perfect Hurry The Food Up recipe. Before I head into just how nutritious it is, I want to talk about my favourite thing – the speed. The PURE SPEEEEEED!
It’s such a quick recipe – so quick it surprises me every time. Literally just FIVE MINUTES of throwing everything together and into the oven it goes.
That’s it, no more to do. Sit back and put your feet up. Or do a workout. Or look after the kids. Or get some work done. Do whatever it is you have to do – but know that the food is taken care of.
Ricotta Bake – open, open, splat
That pretty much sums up the instructions. Grab your ingredients, flop them into a baking dish and off they go. This is one of those recipes where the sum is so much better than its parts.
Baked ricotta, when mixed with the right herbs and accompaniments is not only tasty, it’s ridiculously nutritious.
Ricotta – why we love you so
Knowing we’re eating something that’s tasty and easy is all well and good – but we’ve got to take care of our nutrition if we want the most from life. And a ricotta bake takes care of the nutrition.
Just check out a few of the ingredients.
Ricotta – mostly made from whey and a great source of protein.
Lentils – also high in protein, but particularly great in terms of fibre. And fibre rocks.
Spinach – I’m the first to admit I’m not a massive fan – until it’s done right. And by that I mean that I can’t really taste it! That’s when I love spinach.
Basil and tomatoes – one of my favourite combos. The sweet bite of a tomato mixed with a little ricotta and finished with a touch of basil is an excellent addition to any meal, in my humble opinion.
And finally did I say this only takes 5 MINUTES to prep?! How great is that? Just sit back and let the oven do the rest 😎
Ingredients
- 3 spring onions
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ lemon (juiced and zested)
- 2 tbsp water
- ¼ cup basil, fresh
- ¼ cup dill, fresh
- 1 cup brown lentils, cooked (1 cup = 1 can, roughly 200g after draining)
- 1 cup spinach (frozen also works)
- 1 pack ricotta (250g / 9oz)
- 12 cherry tomatoes (on the vine if possible)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F
- Chop or rip the basil and dill.
- Mix half the olive oil with the lemon zest and juice, add half the herbs, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Chop the spring onions and add to the bowl with the lentils, spinach and 2 tbsp water.
- Layer it onto a roasting dish.
- Put the ricotta in the centre, on the top.
- Wash the tomatoes and put them around the ricotta.
- Drizzle the rest of the olive oil over the ricotta and add some more salt and pepper.
- Cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes until ricotta is firm and lightly browned.
- Serve in bowls with the lentils on bottom and creamy ricotta on top. Lay the tomatoes to the side.
- Garnish with the rest of the herbs.
Optional – no oil:
- You can cut out the oil completely from this recipe. In place of the oil use vegetable broth – about 50ml to start with, adding a little more if necessary. Mix it in with the lentils before the dish goes into the oven.
NOTES
Nutrition
Comments
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11 comments
I made this basically to the recipe, using canned brown lentils with extra spinach and basil because I didn’t have any dill. I thought it was easy and yummy! Would go great with baked veggies or rice, or you could add almost any diced veggies to the lentils. Thanks!
Hi Suzie! How are you? Nice, yes, this a long-time fave now! It still gets made every couple of weeks here. Agreed, veggies and/or rice are awesome with it as well!
This was delicious – true comfort food! I started out with some nicely seasoned lentils that I cooked with garlic and onion and squeezed some extra lemon juice over the top. The nice thing is you can cook the lentils way ahead of time, so everything comes together quickly.
This was delicious! We didn’t have canned lentils so I cooked some on the hob with a vegetable stock cube, half a red onion, and a bay leaf. Only used a small drizzle of olive oil over everything and didn’t miss the extra at all. Really nice with miniature heirloom tomatoes as well. I’m not always a fan of lentils but this recipe might have changed that!
Sounds delicious, Hannah! Absolutely, the way you described cooking the lentils sounds perfect (even better than tinned, I’m sure). Thanks for writing, I’m glad you enjoyed!
Brilliant, so easy. I added a bit extra lemon zest/ juice, but it tasted fantastic. Had this for my dinner yesterday and the other portion for my lunch today. Fabulous, I hope others will try xx
Ah, so good to hear the bake turned out well for you! Gonna take a video of this one too, it’s really such a easy and tasty dish!
I was disappointed to be honest. It doesn’t take 30 minutes if you’re using dry lentils..it takes an hour. I wouldn’t bake this dish. I would simply cook the lentils and mix it with the other ingredients still fresh, as a salad instead of a baked dish. Less trouble, less time and less dishes, and fresh tomatoes,spring onion & lemon zest would add much better flavour. Also Ricotta is an expensive cheese & doesn’t really add much in terms of flavour. I would use feta or something similar.
Hmmmm, ok. Bummer you weren’t happy with the dish.
Funny enough, I’ve made it a couple of times in the past 2 weeks and I’m really happy with the dish.
Sure, you can make a salad out of it, but the idea is to have the dish hot, including the ricotta. I find feta a nice idea too, but ricotta is really not bad either. And of course, to make it “low-effort” you’ll need to have a can or jar of lentils.
The more I think about it, the more I like the dish. Probably in my top 15 of all time.
Just made this……. YUM!
Wohooo! Glad you enjoyed the bake, Lindsay 😀