Pat’s “Fun Food Chef” Dahl

Fantastic dish to sit alongside any curry night or even be the main attraction. You can spice it up with a hotter blend than I’ve used here from Seasoned Pioneers, and I often do. Healthy nutritious and full of flavour what else could you want. May be it’s so easy!!

Ingredients

250g Lentils

½ a finely chopped Onion

Table spoon of vegetable oil

1 large clove of finely chopped garlic

1 teaspoon of Seasoned Pioneers ground Cumin

1 teaspoon Seasoned Pioneers ground fenugreek

1 ½ to 2 teaspoons of Seasoned Pioneers Korma blend

Splash of Olive Oil

1 Knorr chicken or vegetable stock cube

Ground black Pepper

800 to 850 ml of water

Method

• Sweat in a thick bottom pan the onions and garlic in the olive oil seasoned with pepper (sweat is the fancy chef’s term but it just means cooking without colouring! Cooking on a low heat until the onions become see through or translucent).

Clockwise from top left

Onions and Garlic sweating                     Simmering Lentils                     Wonderful spices from Seasoned Pioneers

• Add the lentils of your choice but not the orange ones my Mum used to use! I like the green lentils
• Add the spices and cook without burning for 30 seconds or so.
• Add the chicken stock cube or vegetable stock cube, whatever your preference.Note: I don’t add salt as a lot of stock cubes are salt based, I’m also not an Oxo fan but it’s up to you.
• Now add 500ml of water and bring to the boil.
• Simmer for 40 to 50 minutes until the lentils are soft but not mush.
• You need to keep stirring occasionally to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan and burn! Don’t let the Dahl get too dry. Note: If they do start to stick and burn decant into another pan and add a little more water. Don’t stir anything that has burnt/started to catch on the bottom of your pan as you will stir the bitter burnt taste in to your dish and we don’t want that. Decant before this happens.
• Add more water if you need it but don’t add too much. Just keep it ½ cm above the lentils until the last 10minutes.
• The last 10 minutes is when you need to stir more frequently and allow the liquid to evaporate until it only just covers the Dahl.
• Time to serve when your lentils are soft and tender.