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Coconut Red Lentil Dal
A mild but delicious plant-based dal with just a hint of heat, combining red lentils, coconut milk and flavourful spices. This healthy dish is high in protein and fibre, low in calories and naturally gluten-free. Bonus: it comes together in just 30 minutes – perfect for a weeknight dinner. Like spice? Add some extra cayenne pepper or chopped fresh chillies when cooking the aromatics.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 300 g red split lentils
- 3 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 40 g fresh ginger root, peeled and minced
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp mild Kashmiri chilli powder
- 400 ml vegetable stock
- 1 x 400 ml tin of coconut milk
- 1 handful of fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped
- white basmati rice, to serve
Instructions
- Rinse and soak the lentils for 10 minutes, then drain. This should give you enough time to
- prep the rest of your ingredients.
- Heat the coconut oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and season with a generous pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 1 minute. Add the spices and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Add the vegetable stock, coconut milk and drained lentils and stir to combine. Turn the heat up to medium-high and bring to a simmer.
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 12 minutes. Give the dhal an occasional stir so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir in the coriander. Taste and season with salt and pepper, to taste. To serve, top with the fresh coriander and serve with steamed rice.
- STORAGE: this dhal can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months; defrost in the fridge overnight before heating.
Very simple tasty recipe. I added peppers and spinach to mine too to have more veg in it.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I often add spinach to mine as well 🙂
Easy to make, tasty and healthy. Didn’t want to say ‘simple’ as that would do a disservice to the depth of flavour you achieve from this dish! I added finely chopped leeks when sweating the onions as I had one knocking around the fridge, and a dollop of yoghurt at the end. Lunches batched up and sorted for the week!
Love the sounds of those additions. I’m so glad you enjoyed it 🙂