Beef, Lentil and Spinach Ragù
Half beef, half lentils, braised down with tomato and finished with spinach and a squeeze of lemon, built for the week your iron loss peaks and cooking is the last thing you want to do.
Why it works
Menstrual blood loss is the leading cause of iron depletion in menstruating people, and depletion shows up as fatigue long before it ever shows up as anaemia on a blood test. This dish puts both forms of dietary iron in one pot. Heme iron comes from the beef, and your gut absorbs it efficiently no matter what else is on the plate, since the phytates and polyphenols in the rest of the meal can't touch it. Non-heme iron comes from the lentils and spinach, and those same compounds can block it, which is exactly why the lemon goes in at the end. Half beef instead of all beef keeps the saturated fat down and the fiber up, and the lentils stretch the pot further, which is the whole practical point of a batch.
Heme iron absorption and the vitamin C effect on non-heme iron are both well established in absorption studies. Whether your own iron stores need attention is a blood test and a conversation with a clinician, not something to guess at from symptoms or from what you cooked for dinner.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 400 g lean beef mince
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, finely diced
- 2 celery sticks, finely diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 200 g dried brown lentils, rinsed
- 2 x 400 g tins chopped tomatoes
- 500 ml low-sodium beef stock
- 200 g spinach
- 1 lemon, juiced
Method
- Heat the oil in a heavy pan and brown the mince hard, breaking it up, for six minutes. Let it catch on the base before you stir; that is where the flavour is.
- Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook for eight minutes until softened, then the garlic and tomato paste for one more.
- Stir in the lentils, tomatoes and stock. Simmer, partly covered, for 40 minutes, until the lentils are soft and the sauce has come together.
- Off the heat, fold the spinach through in handfuls, then add the lemon juice and taste.
- Cool within two hours and portion. Serve with something that carries it: pasta, polenta or rice.
