Vegan Indian Red Lentil Daal

I am Loyal and Constant in Love with my Travel - Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love

In these Covid-19 times it’s harder than ever to travel and yet, I at least, have tried out so many new cuisines and have find some cuisines I love very, very much. After finding an indian grocery shop a few weeks ago when I was out for a walk with hubby we ended up buying various ingredients from the shop and made a wonderful indian meal. Afterwards? I was hooked. I found the Indian cuisine and have asked myself so many times since, how I couldn’t have had eaten real Indian food ever before. It wasn’t that I was completely unfamiliar with it, I just hadn’t made it myself with authentic Indian ingredients, which made/makes such a big difference! Since that walk, ending up us finding that Indian grocery shop, I have eaten and cooked my own Indian food more times than I had ever done before in my life. It took me some times to learn the seasonings, the flavors, the colors and the textures, but now I’m here and am so excited to share my delicious Vegan Indian Red Lentil Daal with you all!

What is “Daal”?

Indian dal, Dahl, daal or dhal is a traditional and very known lentil stew from southern India. It can vary a bit depending on the region it comes from/ is made, but it usually consists of lots of various spices, tomatoes and lentils (or peas). It is a very flavorful and spicy stew, also being vegan.

So many flavors!

The Indian cuisine is known for it’s colorful, beautiful, fun and very flavorful food. A dish often consists of lots of ingredients, and this stew is no exception. We use fresh ginger, garlic, turmeric and garam masala! Garam masala is the name of a dish but also of a spice mix. You preferably buy garam masala spices straight from an indian grocery shop but they can also be found in ordinary grocery shops. When using a garam masala dry seasoning mix you will need approx 2-3 tsp to make this dish, but if you use a garam masala paste you will need approx 2-3 tbsp. Be cautious though, because different kinds of dry seasoning mixes and pastes from various brands can vary a lot in taste and heat. Taste and add more seasoning while making and tasting the food.

Also, if you don’t like too hot food, don’t add too much garlic and ginger.

Serve this with…

…rice or Indian Naan Bread. You can find a very simple naan bread recipe here, which only needs 2 ingredients to make.

Indian Spinach Daal

4 servings

INGREDIENTS:

100 g dry red lentils

0.5 tsp turmeric powder

800 ml water

2 tbsp optional cooking fat

0.5 yellow onion

1-2 garlic cloves

1-2 cm fresh ginger

2-3 tsp garam masala seasoning mix OR 2-3 tbsp garam masala paste*

50 ml water

400 g crushed tomatoes

50 g butter

approx 0.5 tsp salt

100 g fresh spinach**

HOW TO MAKE:

• Place the lentils in a sauce pan with the turmeric and water. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 20’.

• Meanwhile, finely chop the onion. Heat up a big pan with the oil and fry the onion soft. Add pressed garlic clove and grated (or finely chopped) ginger and the garam masala seasoning mix or paste. Combine everything together for 1-2’.

• Add a little bit of water, the crushed tomatoes and the butter. Combine and let it simmer for 5’.

• When the lentils are done skim off any excess skum that has appeared. Then add the lentils (without the water) and the fresh spinach into the big pan, and combine everything together. Let it cook for another 5’ until the spinach has wilted.

• Serve with rice and/ or naan bread, and a drizzle of coconut milk on top if you want.

NOTES:

• Read the middle part of this post to read about the different options for the garam masala seasoning.

• Preferably use fresh spinach, but frozen spinach use too. Then let it cook in the stew for 5’ until it it completely blended in and combined.

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