Dhal made easy (for your little dhal-lings)

This dish is comfort food at its very best. It is all you need on a cold day and can easily be tuned to match your own taste.  If you have not got or don't like an ingredient leave it out or try something else.  It is of course a pulse dish and the joy is that virtually any small lentil will work and each one will give its own flavour and texture.  We have used here red split lentils and yellow split peas, the reds will melt and give body and smoothness and the yellows will retain their shape.  The final dish should be like a thick soup and we serve this with some Perswari Nan Bread.  It is not overly spicy, just full of flavour, but you can add more chilli if you wish.

It will keep a few days, but once tasted it won't last that long!

You will need

2  tspn vegetable oil

100g red split lentils

100g yellow split peas

1 large onion coarsely chopped

2 cloves garlic chopped

1 can chopped tomatoe

1 can coconut milk

1 tbsp turmeric

2 tspn black mustard seeds

1 tspn chilli powder

Salt and pepper

Coriander leaves

Cook the yellow split peas in boiling water for 15 mins. Meanwhile cook the onion in a large pan until just golden, now add all the dry spices and fry for a minute.  Add the drained yellow lentils and all other ingredients except salt, add a can of water and bring to the boil.  Simmer gently, stirring often for about 30 mins, it may take a little longer.  You may need to add some boiling water as you go if the mixture becomes too thick. Now season to taste with salt.

Garnish with coriander and serve with bread or as a side dish to a main meal.

Options

Change the pulses or use just one

Add a vegetable, 200g of spinach added after 20 mins of simmer is particularly good
In India they would fry some garlic slices and cumin seeds in  50g of butter until the garlic is golden and stir this mixture into the Dhal. This would be right at the end of cooking.

Do let us know if you come across a star ingredient for this dish.  Enjoy

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