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Dhal (Pulse) Recipes



Chick Pea Curry 1

Fancied something tasty yesterday but couldn't be bothered with anything complicated so we had the oft used "chuck it all in a pan and boil it" chick pea curry:

  1. Fry a chopped onion in oil/butter/ghee whatever you have, until cooked through.
  2. Add a teaspoon each of ground cumin and ground coriander, half a tsp of chilli powder, squashed garlic, grated fresh ginger, salt to your taste, some cumin seeds perhaps. OR 2 or 3 teaspoons of any Pataks curry paste.
  3. Stir for a few seconds then remove from heat and add a can of chick peas, a medium potato cut into half-inch dice, a sliced tomato, a big squirt of tomato puree.
  4. Now the tricky bit :o) Add water until runny and boil it until the taters are done. This can take a surprisingly long time! If it's too thick and the taters aren't done, add some more water. When they're done, boil away the excess water until it's thick enough to heap onto pieces of warm naan with a splodge of mango chutney on top. Don't use cooked taters to reduce the cooking time, because the sauce won't have time to thicken and go scrummy.

Tarka Dhal

Recipe

Method

  1. Thoroughly wash, drain and place the lentils in a large saucepan with the water and bring to the boil.
  2. Simmer uncovered for ten minutes, stirring frequently and removing any scum that forms.
  3. Cover and cook for a further thirty minutes or so, stirring occasionally until the lentils are soft and form a moist "porridge".
  4. In a seperate pan gently heat the ghee or sunflower oil, add the cumin seeds and fry for a couple of minutes until they start to darken or pop,
  5. Add the onion andfry until nicely browned. Add the garlic and fry for a further two or three minutes.
  6. Add the ground spices and fry for a further two minutes, the add the contents of the pan to the lentils and stir to fully combine for two minutes.
  7. If the dhal is too thick, add further water; if too thin, simmer gently until reduced.

Link to Identifying Dhal
The range of Dhal recipes which are on this site can be found via the links on the list of Vegetable/Vegetarian Recipes page.