Red Lentil Dahl and Fragrant Rice with Currants

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Oh man, I am so psyched about a Saturday night at home, alone, with no plans.  I think it’s been weeks since I’ve had one of these, and I am ravenous for nothing on the slate except for changing into PJs, throwing in some laundry, and finishing three different knitting projects while catching up on backlogged downloaded TV shows, and then going to bed super early so I can get up and go running before teaching a Beginner’s Knitting class before opening up the store.  Sweet!
So because of all that, without question, tonight had to be dahl.  Warm, filling, non-dish-intensive dahl, yielding multiple days of leftovers…which I will be needing since I’ve decided to open up the store on my two days off this week to accommodate last-minute Christmas shopping!
So, here’s one of my favorite ways to make rice whenever I’m eating it with anything verging on Indian:

Bring 2 cups of water and 1 cup of basmati rice to a boil, in a small pot with a little salt, homemade cultured butter, turmeric, and dried currants.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until rice is fully cooked; set aside and keep covered.

My dahl is usually a catch-all for whatever stalky vegetables I have on hand — tonight, a stray carrot, and the broccoli stalks from an earlier meal this week that stole the florets.  I sauteed half a chopped yellow onion in some of the same cultured butter and salt, along with whole cumin and mustard seeds, about half a tablespoon of each.
I added a cup of homemade chicken broth, and let that all cook together while I chopped the veggies — not too much, just enough to dot the stew with some tender pieces.

I threw in the veggies, some muchi curry powder, and a whole cup of dried red lentils, then filled the pot to just an inch below the top with water.  I brought all this to a boil, then lowered it to medium-high and let it wildly simmer until the red lentils had all exploded and self-pureed.

I stirred in about 7 oz. of coconut milk (you can freeze the rest for another time), let it reduce a little more, and then took it off the heat and let it cool and thicken a bit.  

Oh, and of course, in the end I had to top it off with a little of this:

purchased from one of my fantastic vendors at Urban Craft Uprising earlier this month.  I can’t imagine a better use for it!

2 thoughts on “Red Lentil Dahl and Fragrant Rice with Currants

  1. This sounds doilcieus. You could make any extra into soup as well.Today I made split pea soup cooked on high in the slow cooker for 4-5 hours. I cup peas to 5 cups liquid (box of vegetarian broth plus water) with one sweet potato diced and about 1 cup celery sliced thin. I added a bunch of nearly fresh sage and some dried thyme, salt and pepper with a pinch of cayenne pepper. I would have added chopped onion, but I didn’t have one. It was good. A dash of vinegar and oil in the bowl were good condiments.

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