recipe: dal (red lentils)

[cellio]

I took advantage of Dani being out of town to cook food he doesn't like but I do. There are lots of kinds of dal (dal means "lentils" in Hindi or Urdu). I based what I did on this recipe.

In a deep skillet, saute in hot olive oil over medium heat until onions are soft but not yet brown:

• 1 large sweet yellow onion, chopped
• ~3" ginger root, peeled and cut fine
• 1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
• 3 red mini-peppers, chopped

Then stir in and cook while you chop tomatoes:

• ~1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ~1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• several shakes of dried red pepper flakes

Add:

• 4-5 small sweet tomatoes, diced (maybe a cup or so?)
• 1 bag frozen stir-fry vegetables, thawed (the cauliflower in the recipe I found sounds nice but I didn't have any)

Cook for a couple minutes, then add:

• 1 cup dried red lentils
• 2 cups vegetable broth

Bring to a boil, stir, then reduce heat and cover. Stir occasionally and add broth or water as needed. I needed another half-cup or so of liquid after about 10 minutes, and a bit more after another 10. Cook until done, about 30 minutes total.

Right before serving, stir in a few squirts of lime juice and some chopped cilantro. I had it over brown rice.

With rice, this made 5-6 meal-sized servings. (I made 1.5 cups (dry) rice.)

Comments

[sine_nomine]

This sounds great!

However, dal does not mean lentil (though it is not uncommon to see it translated that way). A better translation is "pulse" or "pulses". There is, for example, chana dal - which is whole chickpeas, moong dal (or green gram, or mung bean), urad dal, toor dal, and many many others... the name often changed if it's whole or split.