Red Lentil Dal

If you are looking for a recipe that is healthy, saves you a bit of money and provides you with days of leftovers, this is the one! When Mel and I had to live in a rural town together for our pharmacy practicum, we wanted to make something that would save us money. We made this recipe and it lasted us for about four days (and we ate this for pretty much every meal - lunch, dinner, snacks- it's so good we didn't even get sick of it!).

Lentils, as many people know, are a legume and are a great alternative to meat, as they are high in protein, a lot less expensive than meat and does not have the same saturated fat content found in meat (especially, red meat).

Lentils are also high in fiber, and many of the B vitamins, including folate. You may be thinking, I need to start eating lentils right now! But that’s not all, lentils also contain most of the essential amino acids needed for the body. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins; “essential” means that your body can't produce them, and you have to get them from another source, like your food. Since lentils don't contain ALL the essential amino acids your body needs, I have paired it with some brown rice or a whole wheat pita, which contains the rest of those essential amino acids, and they just so happen to taste pretty great together too!

Ingredients:

2 ½ cup red lentils

~¼ cup of chopped red onion

2 cups of chopped spinach

9 medium sized diced tomatoes (or more; the more the better)
3 minced garlic cloves

2 tablespoons of black mustard seeds

3 tablespoons Garam Masala

2 tablespoons Red Chili Flakes

2 tablespoons Cumin

1 tablespoon Curry Powder

4 tablespoons Curry Leaves

3 teaspoons kosher salt

Step 1: Place the lentils into a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until you get a soup like consistency (approx 15 minutes). You may need to add more water throughout the cooking process as the lentils expand.

This is when it is almost cooked but not quite ready as you can still see some of the bright red uncooked lentils

Here, you can see it has turned more of a yellow colour indicating that they are completely cooked
Step 2: In a large saute pan, heat the mustard seeds with about one tablespoon of oil until they start popping. You may want a lid for this step, as the mustard seeds can go flying.

Step 3: Add all of the spices, onion and garlic to the mustard seeds and heat for about 45 seconds. Add the tomatoes and cook until the skins begin to fall off.

The skins are still attached here so keep cooking!
Step 4: Add the spinach and cook until the leaves wilt. Spinach shrinks down a lot when you cook it, so the two cups is an approximate amount, you can add as much or as little as you want.

Step 5: Add the lentils to the saute pan, mix well and simmer for about 10 minutes to allow the flavour to disperse throughout the lentils.

Serves well topped with cilantro, with brown rice or a half of a (toasted) whole wheat pita as a healthy alternative to naan bread.

-A