Red lentil and pumpkin pottage

Pottage is a nice word, isn't it? It evokes thick, lovely, stick-to-your-ribs warmth. Which is exactly what this is. This is from my New Covent Garden Soup Company book. I am not sure I ever made before, perhaps I had dismissed it for its apparent simplicity. It is simple, but it is good. And simple can be wonderful on chilly winter nights.

Also, I just came back from Italy struck by how good simple food can be. Basically every pizza or pasta dish we ate there comprised just one main ingredient besides the pasta or dough, often something cheap and hearty: pasta and spinach; pasta and chickpeas; pizza with aubergine, pizza with zucchini... All so good. I remember the first time I realized what Italian food really is, when I first visited Italy: I ate a dish of spaghetti with oil and garlic expecting to be underwhelmed but instead I got it for the first time after a life of boring non-Italian Italian food.

This little kabocha squash was loitering around from our last vegetable bag before Christmas, and we returned from Italy to a cold, busy day of unpacking and sorting things out, and simple soup from good ingredients, all of which we happened to have at home, was exactly what fitted into the day.

For the soup:
2 oz / 50 g butter
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 medium kabocha squash (or butternut... 1 1/2 lb / 675 g), peeled and diced
1 bay leaf
red lentils
1 3/4 pints / 1 litre vegetable stock
salt and pepper

To serve:
yogurt or creme fraiche
chopped fresh coriander
toasted pumpkin seeds

Melt butter in a lidded saucepan and fry the onion, squash and bay leaf with the lid on until slightly tender but not coloured. Add the lentils and stock, bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 min until the vegetables and lentils are soft. Taste for seasoning, let cool a bit and blend until smooth. Reheat gently and serve in bowls with yoghurt swirled on top and sprinkling of coriander and pumpkin seeds. Those New Covent Garden Soup Company soups are endlessly great.

Coconut and pumpkin dal

I went to Paris for five days for a meeting. It was sunny all the time, and I never wore a coat. I came back, and Copenhagen had decided it was Autumn. It was chilly, windy, rainy. Dal season had started. I'd hardly spent time cooking for weeks - I've been really busy with work and house stuff. I don't feel like myself when I don't cook: it takes my mind off things and helps me relax. But I hadn't time.

So in honour of dal season, and in an attempt to use up some stuff from the kitchen cupboards, I made this rich, delicious, warming dal. I cooked red lentils and kabocha squash in coconut milk with turmeric, ginger and other spices to maximise warmth in colour and taste. Finished off with a generous amount of fresh coriander, it is warming and decadent and autumnal. And I feel a bit more like myself.

2 tbsp coconut oil
2 in piece ginger, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds
1-2 tsp cumin seeds
seeds from 2-3 whole cardamom pods
2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1 tin coconut milk
water
1 small kabocha squash
4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
salt+black pepper
juice of 1/3 lime

Heat coconut oil in a large pan. Add ginger and garlic and cook until lightly coloured. Grind the cumin, coriander and cardamom then add to the pan along with the other dry spices. Cook until fragrant. Add the lentils and stir until slightly transparent. Add coconut milk and sufficient water to cook the lentils (you can add more later if it gets too thick). Simmer for about 20 min. Once you have started it simmering, deseed the pumpkin (squash) and chop it into smallish chunks. You can peel it if you like but wouldn't have to. Add it to the pan with about 15 min to go. Once the pumpkin and lentils are tender turn off the heat. Add coriander. Add salt, pepper and lime juice to taste. Eat right away with rice or flatbreads, or reheat (it keeps well).

Berbere lentils

I've made berbere lentils before, but at the weekend was browsing my precious weeks-old Guardian Weekend (that Y shepherded carefully over from Beccles for me), and found someone professing this berbere lentils recipe (that I had noticed then forgotten about previously) to be the best thing. And I had exactly the 250 g of red lentils it called for, so off we went.

2 medium onions, chopped
sesame oil (untoasted) or peanut oil, for frying
2–3 garlic cloves, chopped
250g red lentils
2 tbsp berbere spice mix (recipe below)
400g tin chopped tomatoes
400ml water
salt and black pepper

For berbere spice mix:
2 cloves
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp paprika
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp each of ground allspice, black pepper, ground cardamom, and ground nutmeg

To make the berbere, toast the cloves with the fenugreek, cumin and coriander. Grind and then mix with the cayenne, paprika, salt, black pepper, cardamom, nutmeg, turmeric and allspice.

Fry the onions. When softened, add the garlic, lentils and berbere. Mix, then add the tomatoes and water. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, adding more water if necessary.


Pretty good. Was a bit salty - I've reduced the salt a little above (as well as tweaking spice levels to my taste).Very similar to the recipe I tried before (except a bit saltier).

Ultimate gingery red lentil dal

They've had a red lentil dal on the menu at Grød all the time we've been here, and I keep ordering it even though I know it's really something I can make at home. Because it is pretty much the ultimate comfort food on a chilly day (it's starting to feel like Spring and sunny but it's still a bit chilly if we're honest).

I have been making versions of the Grød dal ever since we first went there. This time I think I nailed it. And I made crispy garlic butter flatbreads to go with it, which really took it over the edge.

(takes about half an hour from beginning to end)

Dal:
1-2 tbsp coconut oil
3 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed in a pestle and mortar
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups red lentils
4 cups hot water
3 tbsp tomato puree
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped into half moons
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
juice of 1/3 lime
1 tsp honey
1-2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

To serve:
yoghurt (or skyr, or ricotta)
more chopped fresh coriander
salty almonds (about 5 per bowl)

Cheat's garlic flatbreads:
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-2 cm slice of butter
flatbread (7 chapati size pieces)

Heat the oil in a large lidded frying pan. Add the fresh ginger and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the dried spices and saute until fragrant. Add red lentils and mix around, then pour in hot water, add tomato puree, stir, cover and simmer for about 20 min. Peel and chop the carrots and add to the pan (they should need 10-15 min to become tender). Add about 1 tbsp of chopped coriander. Simmer until the lentils and carrots are tender.

Meanwhile, make the flatbreads. We had some thin Turkish flatbread that needed eating; I chopped it into 7 chapati size squares. Put the chopped garlic and cold butter into a small bowl and heat in the microwave for 15-20 sec, or however long it takes for the butter to become soft and scoopable but not liquid. Mix garlic and butter together. Heat a large heavy frying pan to a high heat, then put the first flatbread piece in it. Warm for a few min, until hot, then turn over. Put about a teaspoon of garlic-butter mixture on it and spread out. Transfer to a plate to keep warm. Repeat for the remaining flatbreads.

To finish off the dal, add the remaining 1 tbsp of coriander (remember to keep some for serving), lime juice, honey, salt and pepper. Taste and add more if necessary.

To serve, fill a bowl with dal, put some yoghurt on top and scatter with chopped fresh coriander and salty almonds. If necessary reheat the flatbreads in the microwave. Scoop dal up with flatbread or eat with a spoon.


Notes: the flatbreads were quite crispy - to make softer, perhaps it would be good to sprinkle them with water while warming the first side; I microwaved the garlic with the butter in the hope it would take the edge off the raw garlic taste and I don't know if it was that that did it but something worked and they were just garlicky enough.

Lazy vegetable and red lentil curry

Since we're subletting I haven't really felt like I settled in, foodwise, yet. The kitchen has most everything we need but not all, and I'm conscious of trying not to mess things up. And since we move again soon (to a different sublet) it feels like it would be silly to buy up lots of foodstuff. Not to mention that there is a whole lot of exciting food out there to buy / eat - baked goods especially are making us happy. And there's just a lot of adventuring / work etc to be done, so spending time doing anything very involved in the kitchen doesn't feel quite right. But then again, just eating pasta or salad all the time doesn't feel right either.

This has been my solution: simple curried vegetables, with red lentils to thicken and deepen. No weighing or measuring and minimal effort; but feels hearty and hygge (and yes not much different from that soup - just a few more spices, less varied vegetables and less liquidy).

(Note: partly inspired by our favourite food place discovery since getting here: Grød - all kinds of sweet and savoury porridge (including dal, barley-otto); perfect for a Danish winter and quite near work.)

~1 tbsp veg oil (or olive oil)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 in piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
few grinds black pepper
1 tsp curry powder
4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
chunk of celeriac, peeled and diced
~1 cup red lentils
1 veg stock cube made up with 2 cups boiling water
smallish piece of broccoli, washed and separated into florets
~1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
~1 tsp salt
~2 tbsp chopped coriander
brown rice and skyr / yoghurt* to serve

Heat the oil in a medium lidded saucepan. Add the garlic, ginger and onion. Cover and cook until softened and slightly browned. Add the spices and mix / toast for a minute. Add the carrots and celeriac and mix. Add the lentils and stock and stir. Cover and simmer for ~15 min until the veg and lentils are nearly tender. Add the broccoli and simmer for ~5 more minutes. Check everything is done and add vinegar and salt to taste. To serve, mix through some of the coriander and scatter some more on top. We ate with brown rice and some skyr*.


This keeps well to become work lunches etc as well - perhaps even improves with a day in the fridge. Usually I would have added tinned tomatoes to something like this, but (a) I didn't have any, and (b) I found that red lentils+stock work well in their place to create a sauce as well as adding texture and earthy flavour.

*I have been having a bit of a break from veganism since getting here - it's tricky to figure out what is / isn't vegan when there's a language barrier. So I am making the best of it and eating lots of all my favourite non-vegan foods (mostly yoghurt; occasionally cheese / eggs / non-vegan baked goods) - no meat! Hence the skyr - I always loved how natural yoghurt goes with spicy curry and brown rice. But this is just fine without it too.

New Year's Hygge Soup (chunky spiced red lentil and root veg)

We live in Denmark now. Since last Sunday. Crikey: nearly a week. After a rush of moving and flying and packing and cases and goodbyes and Christmas and birthday and everything, there we were. It snowed. Amy arrived from Berlin for New Year's Eve - hurrah. We explored a bit. Walking: the Mermaid and the busbies in Amalienborg. 360 degrees of Round Tower. Half-electric bikes to look at the Carlsberg elephant gate. Looks like we can swim and sauna at the harbour baths, but we didn't know in time to achieve it on New Year's Day. Sooo many fireworks.

Discovering supermarkets. Nearest is Rema 1000 (seems to be mid-range), also Aldi; Irma (seems to be more fancy / økologisk). After some foggy outdoor explorations on New Year's Day it felt like enough activity and we went home to create some hygge. With a bag full of red lentils and root vegetables. Soup.

(this served 3 good appetites, with bread, for dinner)

~2 tbsp olive oil (olivenolie)
3 cloves garlic (hvidløg), peeled and chopped
2 medium leeks (porre), sliced
4 medium persillerod (aka petersilienwurzel aka parsley root aka my new favourite thing - seems quite easy to get here; alternatively use parsnips, pastinak), peeled and diced fairly small
6 medium carrots (gulerod), peeled and diced fairly small
1/4 celeriac (knoldselleri), peeled and diced fairly small
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin (kommen)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (kanel)
1/4 tsp turmeric (gurkemeje)
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground thyme (timien)
1 cup red lentils (røde linser)
1 veg stock cube dissolved in boiling water
more boiling water
6 baby pattypan squash, chopped
6 mushrooms (champignon), chopped
splashes of balsamic vinegar (eddike)
splashes of soy sauce (sojasovs)
salt+pepper (salt og peber)

Heat oil in a large lidded saucepan. Add garlic and leeks, cover and cook for a few minutes. Add the chopped root vegetables, cover and cook for a few minutes more until everything is slightly tender and just starting to soften. Add the spices and thyme and stir for a few minutes until you can smell them. Add the lentils and stir, then add the stock and enough water to achieve a consistency a bit runnier than you'd like to end up with (the lentils will absorb some). Turn down low, and simmer for 10-15 min, until the lentils and vegetables are almost tender. Add the squash and mushrooms and cook another 5-10 min, until everything is done. Taste, and add vinegar, soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Eat warm with bread (brød). Would be good (perhaps better) reheated the next day, if there is any left.


This came out just as I wanted, and really hit the spot. A big pan of it went down real well.

One pot red lentil, coconut and greens dal

Making dal with coconut milk instead of water had been in the back of my mind for a while. Also adding stuff other than spices and aromatics. Someone recommended this recipe, thought I'd give it a try (with modifications).

This is a pretty good summer dal. Since it uses red lentils the cooking time is short (relative to other dal like chana), so less time spent over the stove. Coconut and greens also seem like summery additions.

2 tbsp coconut oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 in piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped (used ~1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes)
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1 cup (approx 250 g) red lentils
1 ~400 ml tin coconut milk made up to ~800 ml with water
~ 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup spinach or other tender greens (I used a mixture of the green parts of napa cabbage and butter lettuce)
1 small bunch of coriander, chopped

In a medium saucepan, heat the coconut oil, then add onion, garlic, ginger and chilli and fry gently til lightly browned. Add the mustard seeds and heat til they pop. Add the turmeric and garam masala and fry for a minute or so before adding the lentils. Add the coconut milk-water mixture to the pan, then cover and cook gently for 15-20 min, stirring occasionally. Add the salt and taste for seasoning. Finally, add the greens and coriander and cook for a few minutes more, until they are wilted but still bright green.


I really enjoyed the rich coconuttiness of this dal (makes it a bit richer than most dal, but totally delicious). Also the greens. This is a different cooking method to my usual dal - adding everything to one pot rather than frying the onions and spices separately and adding them last. Think it is fine, and obviously saves washing up etc, although perhaps uniquely possible for small, quick-cooking dal like the red lentils.

Spiced okara and red lentil dip

I made more tofu, partly because I wanted to see if I could do a better job / get a more stand-up texture, partly because I kind of wanted more okara to play with - the cornbread I made with the last lot was so, surprisingly delicious...

I used part of the okara for this dip - it's a variation on the red lentil dip I've made many times.

1/2 cup red lentils
1/2 cup okara
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 clove garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander seed
1 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp ground ginger
~ 1 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Put lentils, okara and water in a small pan, cover and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for ~ 10 min, then turn off the heat and leave pan covered for ~15 min. Add the remaining ingredients and blend to a paste.

Carrots, red lentils and big couscous

While S is away I've ended up spending a fair bit of time in the kitchen, trying to work my way through a backlog of vegetables. Having got more carrots in the CSA this week, I made an effort to get through all the titchy / odd-shaped ones still hanging around in the fridge from previous weeks - in this and piccalilli.

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 in piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
1 green chilli, seeds removed, chilli chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped 
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander seed
2 tsp ground paprika
1 tsp cinnamon
~6 medium carrots, peeled and diced fairly fine (~1cm)
3/4 cup red lentils
1/2 cup big couscous
1 1/2 cups veg stock
2 tsp honey
2 tsp lime juice
1 tsp soy sauce
salt+pepper
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli, cover and cook for a couple of minutes until starting to soften. Add the onion and cook for a few more minutes. Add the ground spices and cook, uncovered, for 30-60 sec, until fragrant. Add the carrots and mix / cook for a minute, then add the lentils and couscous and mix well. Add the stock, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the lentils, carrots and couscous are all cooked. Add the honey, lime juice, soy sauce and taste for seasoning. Mix in the fresh herbs. Eat warm.


I was aiming for something between a soup, a stew and a pilaf, which is what I ended up with: a warming, one-pot, Autumn dinner. Processing all those weirdo carrots took awhile but it was kind of nice to be cosy in the kitchen and feel useful.

Carrot and Lentil Soup

On my way back from aerials with a tiny bit of a hangover, on a beautiful night for biking, I was turning over what I wanted to eat: I had a yen for soup.  Spicy Asian-flavoured soup.  Vietnamese?  Tom Yum?  Some kind of dhal?  But I didn't feel like going out for dinner...  I enjoyed the mixture of carrots and red lentils in the haggis yesterday, and this is what I came up with when I got home:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~1 in chunk ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp red pepper flakes
5 medium carrots, peeled and grated
~ 2/3 cup red lentils
2 cups veg stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tbsp rose harissa
1 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp coriander, chopped
salt+pepper

Heat the oils in a medium saucepan.  Add the onion, garlic and ginger, cover and sweat until well softened.  Add the cumin seeds, chili and red pepper flakes, and cook and stir for a few minutes.  Add the grated carrot and red lentils, and stir and cook for a few more minutes.  Add the veg stock, cover and simmer for ~15 min until the lentils and carrots are cooked.  Add the soy sauce, maple syrup, rose harissa and lime juice, taste and season with salt and pepper.  Add chopped coriander to serve.


Mmmm, exactly what I wanted.  Warming, slightly spicy, full of earthy taste.  Seb loved it too, and it went very well with thinly sliced vollkornbrot from Clear Flour.

Berberé Stew

Liked the simplicity of this recipe, and the sound of the spice mix.

Berberé spice mix:
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground fenugreek
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp paprika (used red pepper flakes instead)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground sea salt

Stew:
1 small onion, chopped
1 1/4 cup red lentils
2 1/4 cups water
1 garlic clove, crushed
1-2 tbsp berberé spice mixture, above (used entire quantity made above)
1 800g can crushed tomatoes

Mix lentils with water, garlic, onion, and spices.  Cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat, for 20 minutes or until the lentils have softened.  Watch carefully and add water if it starts to dry out.  Add the tomatoes and heat at least 15 more minutes.  Eat with rice or bread or on its own as a soup-stew.


Warming, and very rich in flavour.  Spice combo not a million miles from the ras el hanout I made not long ago.  This is a time for comforting, spicy, tomato-y, pulse-y stews.  I am sure whenever I eat fenugreek I can smell it coming out of my pores a day afterwards.  Or does fenugreek just smell like sweat?

Sweet and sour red lentils

 

It has been raining since Monday.  Now it's Thursday, and it's wetter than ever.  It felt like weather for comfort food.  I decided that = dal.  I was looking for a red lentil dal, with the thought at the back of my mind that I'd like to use some of the fenugreek I bought the other day.  I came across this recipe by Madhur Jaffrey on the BBC, and it caught my eye - it includes a few of my current favourite things (tamarind, fenugreek, nigella, fennel seed...).

250g/9oz/1¼ cups red lentils
¼tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp mustard or any other vegetable oil (used regular veg oil)
½ tsp brown mustard seeds
½ tsp panch phoran (= mixture of fennel seed, nigella, cumin seed, fenugreek and celery seed or black mustard seed - I didn't have celery seed so used a mixture of the first four)
4 hot dried red chillies (used 2 as thought they might be super hot)
1 bay leaf
1¼-1½ tsp salt
2 tbsp thick tamarind paste or to taste
1 tbsp sugar or to taste

Wash the lentils in several changes of water until the water runs clear. Put them in a medium-sized pan with the turmeric and mix. Cover with 1l/1¾pt/4½ cups water. Bring the lentils to the boil over a medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover partially and simmer for 40 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Stir now and then during the last 10 minutes. When the lentils are cooked, mash with a spoon to a pulp-like consistency.

Heat the oil in a large, wide, preferably non-stick pan or wok over a medium-high heat. When hot, add the mustard seeds. As soon as they pop, a matter of seconds, add the panch phoran, chillies and a bay leaf. Stir and fry for 5-6 seconds or until the chillies darken in colour. Add the cooked lentils, 150ml/5fl oz water and the salt. Stir to mix. Add the tamarind paste, a little at a time to get the sourness you desire. Add just enough sugar to balance the sourness. Bring to the boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 8-10 minutes. The finished dal should have the consistency of a thick purée.


This is sooo good.  The red lentils become this thick, lumpy, earthy paste, and the sweet and sour and spicy flavours mingle into that and just make it all incredible.  Didn't really mash / puree it that hard - quite liked it with still-discernible lentils in it, and red lentils turn to mush with little encouragement anyway.  Could have been more brave with the chilis.  Love how much tamarind it has in it.

Lentil and bulghur wheat cakes

I thought I should try more different things with red lentils, and spent an evening poring over books and websites trying to figure out what.  I found this recipe in my New Covent Garden Soup Company cookbook ('Soup and Beyond').  It's a wonderful book - it was a present from my eldest (step) sister years ago, and taught me how to make soup / inspired me to make interesting ones.  I have a few favourites in it - there are lots of exciting vegetarian / vegan soup and bean recipes I've made and more I haven't tried yet.  This is one I hadn't tried yet.

110g (4oz) red lentils
425ml (3/4 pint) water
1 tsp salt
110g (4oz) butter (used olive oil instead)
75g (3oz) bulghur wheat
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 orange pepper, finely chopped
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 tbsp mint, chopped
1 tsp paprika
salt+pepper
oil for frying

Put the lentils, water and salt in a pan and simmer for 20 min until lentils are tender.  Add more hot water if needed.  Stir in some olive oil and the bulghur wheat.  Simmer for 2 more minutes, then turn off the heat, cover and set aside for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil and fry the onion over a medium heat for about 10 min til golden.  In a large bowl, mix the onions and bulghur / lentil mixture.  Add the pepper, spring onion, parsley, mint and paprika and mix well.  Knead for ~2 min until well mixed, then season to taste.  Make the mixture into patties.

Heat some oil and fry the patties on both sides over a moderate heat til golden.


They tasted good, but rather falling-apart in the pan - they stuck together well enough until I started cooking them, but then went to pieces.  Was it because I skipped the butter?  I made a quick salad / fresh relish with chopped cherry tomatoes, coriander leaves, a few beansprouts, some salt+pepper and a dash of balsamic vinegar, which went very well.

Lentil flatbreads + tomato-lime sauce

Since I loved Dan Lepard's olive sesame bread so much I thought I'd have a look through some of his other bread recipes.  I found this one and thought I'd give it a go.  The two main things I like about these recipes are 1) that you make a bread that is different from anything you could buy and 2) the formula of do something quick and easy / wait a while / repeat...


Lentil flatbreads


350g strong white flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
50ml sunflower oil
250ml milk and water, half of each

For the dhal:
150g dry red lentils
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
3 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp salt

The night before, make the dough. In a bowl, mix the flour, soda and salt, add the oil and milk, stir, then cover and leave overnight at room temperature.
Next day, boil the lentils and garlic in water for eight to 10 minutes, then leave to drain in a sieve. Tip on to a sheet of muslin, and wring out excess water. Tip into a bowl, stir in the spices and salt, and remove the garlic. Set aside until cold.
Using lots of flour to dust both hands and worksurface, cut the dough into 50g pieces. Pat each piece flat in the palm of your hand. Take a spoonful of lentils (15g-30g, depending on how brave you feel) and squeeze into a ball, then wrap one piece of dough around it. Dab the edges with water and pinch it together to seal. Tap the dough out firmly, again using lots of flour, then roll very thin. Get a large frying pan quite hot, lay in a patty and cook for a minute each side. Set aside in a warm place, covered with foil, and repeat with the remaining dough.

I made the dough and the lentils in the morning and then assembled, rolled and cooked in the evening after work.  The recipe made about 12 (I think) - half quantity would have been sufficient for us.  Amazingly the lentil mix and dough ended up being perfectly in proportion.  They were well nice and S loved them.  Bit faffy but the assembling and rolling was actually quite a pleasing process and not too hard.

I made a quick spicy lime-tomato sauce to dip them in as I fancied something limey to go with them:

juice of a lime
1 tbsp tomato puree
pinch cayenne pepper
pinch salt
2 tsp olive oil

Mix all together and serve.  Quite runny and lime is the dominant flavour.  S said it was like a cocktail and I guess it did have a lot of elements of a Virgin Mary.  Went well though.

Red lentil dip and skordalia

We bought flower bread from Clear Flour and fancied some stuff to eat with it.  So I roasted some tomatoes (with onions, garlic and thyme, as here), and made some dips...


Red lentil dip

For a while back in Norwich this was a regular feature.  Hadn't made it for a while, but bought a bag of red lentils the other day (after a meal at Red Lentil - so easily suggestible), and remembered about it.

1 cup red lentils
1 1/2 cups water
1 tsp ground cumin
1 clove garlic
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
salt

Put the lentils in a small saucepan with the water.  Boil for 2 min, then turn off heat, cover and leave for ~15min.  Add other ingredients and blend to a paste.


Skordalia

We ate this in a Greek place in Queens the other week and it was tastebud-crushingly garlicky, but also very good.  It reminded me I'd made it once before, with wild garlic in Norwich (where foraging was a more realistic option than here).  Thought it could be good with the bread too.  This time I made it with regular garlic, although tried to downregulate the garlickiness to save our tastebuds a bit.

500g / 4 medium, floury potatoes
~3 cloves garlic
1 tsp white wine vinegar
juice of 1/2 a lemon
~ 3 tbsp olive oil
salt

Boil the potatoes until done (~20-25min).  Drain, and mash until smooth. Crush the garlic to a paste. Add the other ingredients to the potato and mash til smooth. Add more olive oil / salt to taste.

The red lentil dip is an instant classic - so quick to prepare, and open to endless variations. My current fave is with cumin, paprika, cinnamon, a little chilli and ginger, and some pomegranate molasses.

The skordalia recipe makes quite a lot. We ate a lot of asparagus (pan-fried and steamed) in the following few days and discovered that skordalia makes an excellent creamy / garlicky sauce to eat with it - just as I was thinking 'hmmm this needs something' skordalia appeared before me and was a perfect match.