Red Lentil Dahl

A dahl is a type of curry that is made with lentils and it's one of my favourite things to make. No matter how you make dahl, 99% of the time it'll be absolutely delicious! The other 1% of the time is if you do something crazy ahaha, we've all been there!

The Happy Pear and my friend Shakira got me hooked on dahl, it's genuinely like a hug in a bowl, it's so so nice and really filling too!

It's ridiculously easy to make, trust me!

I always have dahl with brown rice and if you're feeling fancy you can have some poppadoms too!

What's great about dahl is that literally anything works.

Once you have lentils, water, and coconut milk you're good to go!

 You can put in any spices you like and any veg you like too, I always throw in some carrots, sweet potato, tomatoes, or courgette but use whatever you want!

Here's the recipe...

Red Lentil Dahl

Ingredients:

• 2 onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
• 200g red lentils
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1/2 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• Pinch of salt
• Juice of 1/2 a lime
• 300ml coconut milk
• 200ml water
• 1 large handful spinach
• 60g raisins
• 5 chopped dates (or 2 Medjool dates)

Method:

1. Chop all the veg that you're using.
2. Cook the onions, garlic, and ginger on a medium/high heat in a large pot for around 5 minutes. Don't bother with oil, keep a cup of water next to you as you're cooking and just add a splash of water if anything starts to stick or burn ahaha!
3. Add the spices, lower the heat, and cook for a further 1 minute, adding water if anything begins to stick to the pot.
4. After that, add the lentils, salt, coconut milk, and water.
5. Bring the mixture to the boil.
6. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring the pot very well every so often, making sure none of the lentils stick to the bottom of the pot!
7. If you're serving your dahl with rice then cook the rice now, while you're waiting for the dahl to cook.
8. The dahl is ready after 20 minutes but you can keep cooking it until it reaches the consistency that you like. If it's too thick then add a bit more coconut milk and give it a stir.
9. Add the spinach, raisins, dates, and lime juice and cook the dahl for another 3 minutes.
10. Serve with brown rice and even poppadoms if you're feelin' fancy!

Behind the scenes: The reality of the dahl photo shoot ahaha!

This recipe makes a good amount of dahl, I'd say about 4 servings! Whenever I make it, I always freeze a portion of it and then I eat that on a day if I'm ever not in the mood to cook anything!

I hope you give this recipe a go, it's genuinely one of my favourites to make!

If you do, make sure to let me know on my Instagram and use the hashtag #plantpoweredhuman

And if you have any questions or anything just send me an email to plantpoweredhuman@gmail.com.

Happy cooking!

Big love,

Darragh