Wednesday, 17 February 2021

Post Furlough/Student Food - Red Lentil Dhal

This is the first example recipe for the £15 for one person for one week menu.  Not the best tasting dhal in the world but a bog standard one that can be made with the minimum of ingredients.  It is cheap, freezes well and only takes half an hour ish to cook.  You can also halve the recipe and have some for today and some for tomorrow if you are a singleton and it tastes even better the next day.  Win win.  Adjust the amount of water to make a sauce or a soup.

Red Lentil Dhal - serves 4

oil 

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 tsp curry powder

400g frozen mixed veg

1 carton of passata or tin of tomatoes

300g red lentil

1 litre of water

Fry the onion in the oil until soft (in the £15 budget I used margarine to do this - not as good but needs must) .  Add the garlic and curry powder and fry for 1 minute more. Add everything except the lentils and bring to the boil, simmer for 5 minutes until half cooked.  Add the lentils and continue to simmer for 20 minutes until the lentils and veggies are soft.

Serve with rice, naans, flat breads, baked potato, fresh bread  or wraps depending on what starches you have to hand.

Variations:

sprinkle with fresh coriander

add coconut milk to the curry in place of some of the water

stir in a tablespoon of mango chutney

use stock instead of water

use other veg e.g. squash, aubergine, sweet potato, swede, fresh or frozen, just half cook before adding the lentils.

This cooks well in a slow cooker, start off in a frying pan and transfer all the ingredients to the slow cooker after the curry powder has spent a couple of minutes in the oil.


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