Cheap, Spicy, Curried Lentils

Every cook or starving student needs to know how to make a decent "Dal" to eat on its own or enjoy as a side dish with all those veggies coming out of the garden. Dal is high in protein, low in cost, and very addicting. It also travels well. Rach transported her event dish  on the back of her bike.

NOTE: The above red seeds are what you're looking for in the store. They are the "inside" of brown lentils after the seed covers have been removed. Red lentils turn yellow when cooked and the curry/tumeric in this recipe pushes it further to the yellow side. Red lentils are not yellow split peas which look much the same.  Because the seed cover is removed, red lentils cook much faster than brown, green, or black lentils.

How to Dal

Saute...

2 Tbsp cooking oil

1 chopped onion

2 chopped garlic cloves

1 inch chopped piece of ginger

Stir in...

1 Tbsp curry power

1 tsp. ground turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Add 

1 cup of red lentils

4 cups vegetable stock. (or 2 cups if in the instant pot)

Saute everything (about 5 minutes) except the lentils and stock.

Add lentils and stock. Cover and simmer until lentils are cooked - about 30 minutes.  Or do the above in an instant pot and use 2 cups of veggie stock and set the timer for 5 minutes.

TIP: Instant pots retain water instead of boiling off on top of the stove, and therefore you can use less. Basic IP rule 1 cup lentils to 1.75-2 cups liquid.  Cooking with an Instant Pot also helps to retain the lentil shape seen above instead of turning it into mush. Mush is still good, just a different texture. Play with both options and see what you like.

Of course you can always turn 50 cents of curried lentils into a $30 meal by spooning it into a baked mini squash with the seeds taken out. (bake the whole squash, slice off the top, scoop out the seeds and add curried lentils to the squash bowl.)

For more tasty recipes, go here.