Delicious Daal

This is a, frankly, awesome dish which has been slightly adapted from a recipe taught to me by my friend Zeeshan Mansoor in Pakistan. He got the recipe from his Mum, so thanks Zee's mum! 

Apart from the taste, this dish is amazing because it's cheap to make, you can keep most of the ingredients in the cupboard for ages, using just a small amount each time. When you want to make it, you just need to get a few things fresh: tomatoes (although could use 1/2 tin of tinned variety), fresh ginger and fresh coriander. Furthermore, I reckon it's quite healthy and it doesn't contain wheat, gluten, nuts, meat, dairy or other animal products which means it pleases most dinner guests.

Serves 3-4 people (as a main dish, obviously serves more as a side)

Good served with basmati  rice (start boiling the rice at the same time as the lentils)- use 1/3 of a cup of dried rice per person.

It helps to divide this dish into three steps and batches of ingredients:

First lot of ingredients:

1 mug of red split lentils (IMPORTANT: put in a sieve and rinse under tap until water runs clear)

1 ½ pints of boiling water

1 veg stock cubes

3 chopped tomatoes (remove skins by stabbing and submerging in boiling water - or could used 1/2 a tin)

1 heaped tablespoon of mustard seeds

1 tsp sugar

Spinkling of salt

Onions and garlic frying with the spices

Second lot:

1 onion diced

2 cloves of garlic chopped up

2 heaped tsp Garam Masala (maybe more)

1 heaped tsp ground coriander

Tsp ground cinnamon

Tsp Cumin seeds

Or whatever spices you can find.

Third lot:

Fresh coriander (31g bags are available in most supermarkets) chopped roughly

Fresh chilli or chilli flakes to taste

Fresh chopped ginger

  

Prepare the first lot by dumping it all into a non stick pot and simmering on a medium heat, stirring occasionally and checking it doesn’t boil dry. This only takes about 20 minutes to cook.

Chop up the onion and garlic and fry in a frying pan on a medium heat until it’s dark brown/almost burnt!

While that's frying chop the fresh coriander, ginger and chilli

Add the spices to the onions and garlic which are nicely browned by now, fry for a few minutes

All the ingredients together at last, just stir 'n' serve

When the lentils are cooked (fall-y apart-y), remove from heat. Add in the fresh coriander, ginger and fried onions and garlic and spices and stir it in – Then it’s done! 

Mmm - hope you like it. Let me know what you think.