This was a recommendation from Sister.  It’s a great dish!  Definitely not much to look at, but it came together quickly and  was so delicious!  This is a great vegetarian protein source and is so tasty!  The original recipe includes 1 lb of spinach, but I left that out since I served this with an Indian spiced Creamed Spinach.  You can’t go wrong either way.

If you’re like me, you hate doing dishes.  So I’m going to write out this recipe so that it only uses 1 pot.  If you don’t mind doing extra dishes and being efficient is more important to you (or you have a wonderful sous chef that you torture with dish-pan hands…), then while the lentils are cooking sauté the onions in a separate skillet.

Indian Dahl

Serves 6

Adapted from All Recipes

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 3 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups red lentils
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 cup coconut milk

In a saucepan, melt butter and sauté onions with cumin and mustard seeds, stirring often.  Cook until softened, then remove onions from the pot and set aside while the lentils cook.

In the now empty saucepan, bring water to a boil and stir in salt, lentils, turmeric and chili powder.  Cover and bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.  (If using spinach add it in the last five minutes) When lentils are tender add the onions back in and mix in the garam masala and coconut milk.  Cook until heated through.