Curry Lentil salad

[chica]

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/currie ... salad.html

Another good one!

[Judith]

Your daily daal

Daal-Types.jpg (36.13 KiB) Viewed 4537 times

It’s a great standby, with brown rice, (together they make a complete protein), and you can ‘raw it up’ with a side-salad of whatever you have to hand, or bean-sprouts…so I was wanting to go for seven versions, one for each day of the week, but have managed only three so far from friends and family—red lentils, green mung beans, yellow split peas…do add more versions if you have favourites…


Here is the Guyanese version:

The ingredients are simple enough -
Small split red lentils (they're really orange). You can use yellow split peas but they take longer to boil.
Salt, finely chopped garlic, cumin seeds and oil of your choice. Chillies optional (but boy do they spark any daal up big time!).
Boil the peas with salt in enough water to result in a thick mushy soup (the quantity of water depends on how runny you want the daal)
When cooked mash with a potato masher and keep hot.
Heat the oil in a small saucepan and then add the chopped garlic and cumin seeds. Allow to fry until the garlic just starts to brown and then quickly stir this mixture into the hot daal mixture. 'Chunkay' is the word the Indians in Guyana use. for this mixture—it ‘chunkays up’ the daal--I wonder if the word’s still used in India! The quantity of oil depends on how much garlic and cumin you use - just a matter of taste - and you can also add some chopped chillies if you want it peppery. You need enough oil so that the cooked mixture can be poured into the daal. If you don't use enough the garlic etc will just stick to the saucepan.

And now for the Kashmiri version:

Mung daal recipe- 500g

* 3 medium onions ( chopped)
* 3 garlic bulbs (chopped)
* 3 tomatoes
* 1 tbs spoon coconut oil
* 1 tbs spoon whole jeera ( cumin seeds)
* 1 tbs spoon salt
* 1 tea spoon ground turmeric
* quarter tea spoon chilli powder
* 2 fresh chillies
* fresh coriander
* methi (dried fenugreek leaves)

Heat the coconut oil and then add jeera, onions and garlic- stir for 5-10 mins,
then add 5-6 cups of hot water, followed by rest of the ingredients ( daal, tomatoes, fresh chillies, chilli & turmeric powder, salt,) apart from coriander and fenugreek leaves- cover the pan and let it cook for 30 mins. After 30 mins check the consistency and then add chopped coriander and fenugreek leaves (a handful)- let it cook for further 5 mins.

I asked my sister about daal. She said that she uses the same ingredients as me but instead of frying the onions/garlic etc, she tends to add them to a boiling water for 15 minutes before she adds the daal and lets it cook on low heat for an hour, depending on what daal she's cooking.. Once the daal is ready she then heats some butter ( but you could use coconut oil…) in a separate pan and adds chopped coriander, lets it cook for 3-5 mins ,then adds it to the daal.


Finally—a Mediterranean Version

Mediterranean Daal ( Four small or two large servings)

Ingredients

1 cup Yellow split peas
Bunch of spinach
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
6 sweet cherry tomatoes
Pinch of asafoetida (optional)
1 red Thai chillie (optional)
1 Romano pepper (or any other sweet pepper if not available)
Maldon salt to taste

Method

Boil the split peas in 4 times the amount of water and add an organic
vegetable stock cube if you have one (gluten free if possible).
Cook until the split peas are soft
and mushy and have absorbed the water but still quite liquid-this should take approx 35-40 minutes.
Steam the spinach gently and then chop.
Cut up the onions, the Romano and the tomatoes, finely chop the garlic
and chillie and saute gently in good olive oil until you have a good
mixture with the onions soft and tomatoes blended in.
Add in the asafoetida.
When the peas are cooked add to the sauted
onions etc and also add the cooked chopped spinach.
Add salt if you think it needs it, bearing in mind that the stock cube
may have salt in it, worth checking what kind-stir gently and serve with brown rice.