A delightful Mediterranean and Indian fusion, this baked curry is full of sweet roasted peppers and lentils with crispy feta cheese on top. Everything sits in a luxuriously creamy spiced sauce and the whole meal comes together in one pan in the oven. This is a versatile dish that can be served in different ways with several variations to make it your own.
Soooo.. What have we here? A mashup of Indian and Mediterranean yumminess, that’s what! A creamy baked curry, full of sweet roasted peppers, lentils and Indian spices, topped with browned feta cheese cubes.
You can serve it with rice and nan to lean into its Indian side, or maybe couscous and pita bread to lean into its more Mediterranean side. It’s whatever you need it to be. It’s just reeeeeally tasty.
One of my most popular recipes ever is my halloumi bake and this recipe is really similar. A rich tomatoey sauce, some plant protein, and browned cheese. This one just goes in a different direction spice-wise. And the great thing is, I know in some parts of the world halloumi is hard to find and expensive, whereas feta is more widely available. Yay!
How to make it in Pictures
As ever, a printable recipe card is on it’s way to you but here’s the visual run down. It’s entirely made in the oven, and there are just a few steps.
You start by roasting your peppers, onions and garlic and then using the residual hot oil to toast the spices.
Then you’ll add your lentils, tomatoes, cream and mix the sauce together all nice.
Arrange the feta on top, bake and then grill to achieve that amazing crispiness.
Serve and delight!
Top Tips for Making this Recipe
- Don’t hesitate to add more veggies! Just roast them in the pan with the peppers. Mushrooms, zucchini, everyone is welcome here.
- I call for 1 and 1/2 cups of cooked lentils. If you’re cooking them from dried, you want to cook around 1/2 cup of dried lentils. If you’re using a can, it will be slightly less than 1.5 cups but it’s not a problem, this is a flexible recipe.
- No lentils? Try chickpeas or other beans.
- Halloumi or paneer can be used instead of feta if you wish. Or any other grillable cheese for that matter.
- The cream is optional. It sure is tasty, and it gives the sauce a nice texture, but a more straight tomato finish is pretty delicious too if you want to lighten this up.
Roasted Pepper & Feta Curry
Ingredients
- Coconut or olive oil
- 3 bell peppers, sliced*
- 1 onion, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 cans chopped tomatoes, (14oz / 400g size)**
- 1.5 cups (300 g) cooked green or brown lentils***
- ¼ cup (60 ml) double (heavy) cream
- 7 oz (200 g) block of feta cheese
- Handful of chopped fresh coriander, cilantro
Spices
- 4 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 Tbsp garam masala
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 200C / 390F.
- Scatter the peppers, onions and garlic in a casserole dish and drizzle with oil. Roast for 30-40 minutes, until the peppers are soft and charred.
- Remove from the oven and quickly add the cumin seeds and mustard seeds to the pan, mixing through the hot oil to toast them. Add the ground spices next, mixing through, followed by the lentils, tomatoes and cream.
- Slice your feta cheese into 6 pieces lengthwise, and then slice each piece widthwise so you have 12 thin pieces. Arrange these on top of the dish. Drizzle or spray with oil.
- Place back in the oven for 20 minutes, and then use the grill / broiler on a high setting to brown the feta cheese.
- Let it rest until it stops bubbling before serving. Toss some fresh coriander (cilantro) on top.
Loved this! My first Reacher!
What’s the difference between ground coriander and coriander? I presume the latter should be coriander seeds, in which case they should be added with the other seeds?
Hi David, apologies for the confusion. The coriander I refer to that isn’t ground coriander is just fresh coriander leaves. That is called cilantro in other parts of the world. I’d usually use both terms together to make sure everyone can understand what I’m referring to but I neglected to do so in this case. Going to edit the recipe now.
Hi again, having just looked at the recipe I can see coriander was just listed twice in the spices so I think that might be what you were referring to! Just a mistake. I write up the recipe after my first test and then edit it with each subsequent test and that’s how it ended up there twice. So sorry. There’s no coriander seeds – just 1 tsp ground.
I made this last week for dinner and my husband requested it again for this week. It was a hit with the whole family. We are now vegetarian, but I just love how nutrient packed all of these recipes are. I include at least one in my weekly meal plan. Bonus that my 9 month old loves every single one!