Red lentil curry!

Wow...who knew I could cook Indian food so well!


I wanted to try making something with red lentils today because I bought a bunch of red lentils from the bulk food store last week. I just picked the very first recipe that came up for red lentils when I did a search for that term on google, and the results were pretty good!

Here's the recipe I followed. My changes/omissions are listed below the recipe:


1 cup red lentils
1 cup onions, diced
1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon curry paste
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 (8 ounce) can tomato puree



Method:

1. Rinse the lentils in cold water until the water runs clear and then add lentils and enough water to cover to a saucepan and simmer until the lentils are tender (about 30 minutes or less if you use high heat). Add water if necessary. Lentils will be mushy at the end.

2. While the lentils are cooking, caramelize the onions in the vegetable oil in a large skillet.

3. Combine the curry paste, spices, garlic and ginger in a bowl. Mix well and add to the onions when they have finished browning. Cook mixture on high heat for 1-2 minutes, then add tomato puree and reduce heat to a simmer.

4. When the lentils are tender, drain off any excess water and add the lentils to the curry mixture. Combine thoroughly and serve immediately.



It's a VERY easy recipe and the results were really great! What I particularly liked about this recipe is that as soon as I mixed the spices together in my little bowl, a very authentic Indian smell hit me. This was not some watered-down North American Indian recipe. I don't mean "North American Indian" like the people, I mean....you know what I mean.


Ok, so here were my substitutions. I didn't have curry paste, only curry powder, so I just mixed curry powder with olive oil and some water. I also didn't have any turmeric, so I'll have to buy some and make this again to see how it tastes with it. Finally, I used cayenne pepper instead of chili powder, and I accidentally spilled about double the recommended amount in. Oops. Still, the taste of this dish is yummy! Perfect to be scooped up with pita or Naan bread, if you're cool enough to have some in your fridge. I'm not.



End result: