Red Lentil Dahl

Everyone has at least one emergency recipe in their arsenal, even if it’s just frozen chips with cheese. When the cupboards are bare and it’s lunchtime, this is the one that I fall back on time and time again. It’s based on a recipe I saw a few years back in The Guardian by Yotam Ottolenghi (before he was famous, yeah?). Lots of budget foodstuffs like pigs ears and oxtails have recently been picked up by celebrity chefs and so thrown off their uncool reputations. Lentils, on the other hand, still bring to mind images of dingy 1970s bedsits and hippies. I’m not going to fight for their cause but I do always have some in the cupboard and they taste great in spicy soups or as sloppy rainy day meals like this! I make this recipe by memory and according to what doesn’t have a thin layer of mould on it in the fridge; the results are always slightly different but still tasty.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

200g red lentils

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic

1 tsp each ground coriander, ground cumin, turmeric, chilli powder, mixed herbs

½ can chopped tomatoes/2 medium fresh tomatoes, chopped

½ can coconut milk (most often I use half a pint of water and 2 tbsps coconut milk powder)

1 chicken stock cube

1 dsp crème fraiche

1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

1 wedge of lemon or lime, to serve

 Method

1)      Rinse the lentils in warm water to remove some of their starch. Leave to stand for five minutes in a bowl of warm water while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2)      Chop the onion and the garlic and fresh tomato, if using.

3)      In a deep frying pan, fry the onion and garlic together for a few minutes over a medium heat until translucent.

4)      Add the ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, chilli powder and mixed herbs before draining the lentils and adding them to the pan.

5)      Tip in the chopped tomatoes and the coconut milk, before crumbling in the chicken stock cube.

6)      The lentils will absorb a lot of moisture as they cook, so add about half a pint of hot water before covering with a lid/tinfoil hat. Gently cook for 10-15 minutes, until soft.

7)      Keep an eye on them as the pan might dry out and they’ll need a little more water. Pulses always soak up flavours too, so try them for seasoning before you serve- they might need a little more of each of the spices.

8)      Before serving, stir in some crème fraiche, then spoon into bowls and eat with a sprinkling of fresh coriander and a good squeeze of lemon or lime juice.