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This is a recipe I was given while looking for something to do with a big tub of red lentils I have. It’s a tasty dhal (like a very thick soup, good for spreading or pouring over rice or vegetables), and its rich in all sorts of nutrients. If eaten with rice, it forms a complete protein, the type that over 3 billion people eat every day. The recipe is Indian in style, but I don’t think it is totally ‘authentic’. Thats OK though. It is also vegetarian, and can be made vegan with a single substitution (olive oil instead of the butter).

The recipe is made in one pot, keeps well in the fridge, and is great reheated. Make a big batch, and use it for lunches or snacks!

Ingredients

• 2 Tbls butter, ghee or light olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced or crushed
• 1 medium onion, white or yellow, chopped
• 1/2 Tsp turmeric
• 1 Tsp garam masala
• 1 Tsp ground cumin
• 1 Tsp chili powder (or more to taste)
• 2 16-oz cans chopped tomatoes (drained)
• 1 cup red lentils
• 2 Tsp fresh lemon or lime juice
• 2 1/2 cups veggie stock
• 5 oz coconut milk (a little more than half a cup)

• seasoning to taste (maybe something spicy?)

  Procedure

  Put the butter, ghee or olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Toss the onion and garlic in, and sweat until transparent.

  When the onions are transparent, which takes just a few minutes, put in all your spices, and toss them around to get them well mixed. See the notes for some info about Garam Masala. Then its time to add the tomatoes, lentils, lemon juice, coconut milk and vegetable stock.

  Bring the mixture to a boil, and then back off the heat to a very gentle simmer, probably medium-low to low on your stove. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes. As you get closer to the end, stir more often, as the thickened lentils may want to burn to the bottom.

  At the end of 30 minutes, drop the heat down to warm, and give them a taste. They probably need some salt! Give a few pinches of salt to the lentils, stir it up really well, and taste again. Lentils, like beans, usually need a fair amount of salt to activate their flavors. Don’t worry too much about going overboard on the sodium, all of our ingredients are very low sodium to begin with, so adding some salt isn’t going to make a big difference, sodium wise.

  If you like your dhal a little spicy, toss in a finely chopped chipotle pepper! Give it a few cranks of freshly ground black pepper too.

  When the dhal is tasty enough, do what I do, put about half the dhal in a blender, and puree for just a moment. Mix the pureed dhal back into the rest of the batch. It makes for a much thicker, smoother dhal, but still has some nice little chunks in it for texture.

  I like to eat it right out of the cooking container with flat bread of some sort (naan would be good), or you can put it over rice or vegetables. Or just about anything. Its yummy, toss it around!

  Notes

  I mention in the recipe to sweat the onions. What is ‘sweating’? Well, its like a saute, but less. Your goal is not to brown the onions or fry them, it is to gently heat them to release their flavors. Sauteing seals in flavor, sweating releases it! You can tell if you have a sweat going by the fact that if you listen to the pan, you’ll only hear slight sizzling. If its a fast sizzle, or your onions are browning, the heat is too high. It is a common technique for situations where you are trying to release something’s flavor, like sauces, soups, or stews.

  When choosing stock, I like to buy the powdered kind bulk from the health food store, use about 1.5 tablespoons of powder per cup of water. You can also go with quality pre-made liquid stocks, but choose the low-fat, low-salt kind, you can always add more salt to a recipe, but if the stock is too salty, you can’t subtract saltiness. Avoid bouillon cubes, as Alton Brown says, they are just salt licks.

  The one weird ingredient I list is the Garam Masala. Garam Masala is a very savory little spice blend common in Indian cooking, and acceptable in many forms of cooking. It can be found at your local international grocery store, or you can cheaply make it yourself with bulk spices from the health food store or spice shop. Check out my Garam Masala recipe for the big info.

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