With the credit crunch snapping at our heals I decided to go on “frugal” shopping spree and as well as half price chicken I came home with 5kg of Basmati rice for £4 and 2kg of red lentils for £2 which is a huge saving on the usual smaller packs I buy! My husband is always saying how much he loves Dhal and I think I have only cooked it once for him so I decided that this situation had to be rectified. I didn’t want to cook just a side dish, I wanted this to be a vegetarian main course and so I researched several recipes. I decided to use Delia’s Dhal Curry as a starting point and took it further by tweaking the spices, using fresh ginger, adding more garlic, cumin seeds, sweetcorn and a coriander yogurt dressing. Her recipe stated that it served 2 so I doubled everything only to find that I made enough for us to eat the following night as well! Hence the photos will show more ingredients than you will have if you make this as below.
I wasn’t sure if my daughter was going to like this dish as it’s the men of the house that like curry best, but after a few negative comments she started to help me cook so by the time it was served she’d completely come round and loved it! It is a mild curry so if you like yours hotter do add more Madras powder.
I am entering my Vegetable Dhal Curry into Javelin Warrior’s “Made with Love Mondays” challenge as it fits with the theme of making everything from scratch.
First you add you water and spices to a pan and bring to the boil.
Then you add your lentils, simmer for 5 minutes and then add diced potato & continue to simmer.
Meanwhile fry you cumin seeds for 2 minutes.
Add the sliced onion & pepper and fry until browned.
Add the curry powder, garlic and chopped tomatoes cooking for 1 minute.
Add the fried vegetables & sweetcorn to the dhal and cook for 5 – 10 minutes stirring occassionaly.
Dinner is ready!
- 225g / 8oz Red lentils
- 10g / 0.5oz Ginger grated to a paste
- ½ tsp Ground cumin
- ½ tsp Cumin seeds
- 1 tsp Turmeric
- 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
- 2 tbsp Sunflower oil
- 1 Onion, large, peeled and sliced
- 1 Green pepper, small, deseeded and chopped
- 1 tsp Madras curry powder
- 3 Cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 Tomatoes, chopped
- 75g / 3oz Sweetcorn, frozen
- Salt
- For Yogurt Dressing:
- 100 g Fat free Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp Fresh or frozen chopped coriander
- Put 850ml (1 ½ pints) of water in a saucepan or wok and add ginger paste, ground cumin, turmeric and 1tsp of salt then bring to the boil.
- Add washed lentils (agitate in a sieve with running water) and bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
- Then add the diced potato and cook until the lentils turn mushy, about 25 minutes (stirring at intervals to stop the mixture sticking).
- Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan and fry the cumin seeds for 2 minutes until browned and fragrant.
- Add onion and pepper and fry over a fairly high heat until the onion has browned.
- Lower the heat and add the Madras curry powder, garlic and the chopped tomatoes.
- Cook for a minute and then add to the lentil mixture, taste, season with more salt and add the sweetcorn.
- Cook gently for a further 5-10 minutes until the sweetcorn is cooked.
- Mix the yogurt and chopped coriander together to make the dressing.
- Serve this with rice and the yogurt dressing.
44 comments
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Martina Evans
05/11/2015 at 11:09 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Lovely recipe! It’s nice to have a meat free meal during the week for a change.
webkin
27/12/2014 at 6:10 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Lovely recipe. Definitely going to try this out soon x
Camilla
28/12/2014 at 12:15 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thanks, enjoy:-)
Paul Wilson
16/10/2014 at 1:06 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Love curry – trying to eat more vegetable based dishes – this should be ideal.
Tracy Nixon
14/10/2014 at 6:44 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I plan to make this for dinner tonight – I am sure it will warm us up on such a windy, wet and cold day!
Camilla
15/10/2014 at 11:05 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Hope you enjoyed it:-)
Ann Robinson
07/10/2014 at 6:49 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
The curry looks good, i’ll have to give it a try
Camilla
08/10/2014 at 4:49 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thanks, enjoy:-)
Maddy
06/10/2014 at 8:18 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Always looking for new veggie dishes 🙂
William Gould
21/09/2014 at 12:17 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
We are always looking for things to have on our weekly “meat-free” day!
Ursula Hunt
08/07/2014 at 8:50 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Nice not to have meat with at least one meal a week
glenn hutton
12/06/2014 at 11:21 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Never had a curry without meat before but as I am cutting down on the intake I think I will give this tasty looking one a try. Thank you!
Ursula Hunt
26/05/2014 at 12:47 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
It is nice not to have meat in the main meal at least once a week
Camilla
26/05/2014 at 12:51 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I totaly agree;-)
Deena Kakaya
10/04/2014 at 6:07 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
This dish is a regular, comforting and nourishing one in out house. Yours looks a fair bit like mine. Great share Camilla xx
Camilla
10/04/2014 at 10:51 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thank you Deena, I’m sure your’s is much better!
Eleanor W
09/03/2014 at 7:08 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I love all curries but this looks delicious and healthy!
Flo Foxes
18/01/2014 at 4:13 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
yum, is it nearly lunchtime 😉
Maya Russell
17/01/2014 at 8:06 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Success, my 10 year old liked it too, (served with cous cous)!
Camilla
18/01/2014 at 12:08 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Brilliant:-)
Maya Russell
15/01/2014 at 8:24 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I made this last night. It was really delicious! I should have cooked the onions longer though to make them a bit softer and I added carrot which I don’t think went that well. I had it just with brown rice as I didn’t have yogurt. Mmmm.
Camilla
16/01/2014 at 10:01 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Glad to hear you enjoyed it – and yes I always give my onions about ten minutes as they do take time to soften:-)
Maya Russell
14/01/2014 at 6:35 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
One of my favourite curries. Lovely served with boiled rice.
Susan Elaine Carter
19/11/2013 at 11:59 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Just fab illustration of how tasty vegetarian recipes can be.
Paul Wilson
19/11/2013 at 5:19 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Are the red lentils ever a problem? Do you soak dried ones beforehand? When I used them once before they kind of puffed up in the cooking to a certain point, then all went kind of flat.
Camilla
19/11/2013 at 10:07 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
No, dead easy to cook and no soaking required just a wash in a sieve:-)
Paul Wilson
14/09/2014 at 1:07 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Great. Have to give them another go then.
Heather Haigh
07/11/2013 at 11:59 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Love curry and this looks both healthy and delicious.
Laura Wilce
26/10/2013 at 2:24 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Fab, I’ve been trying to think of a good use for the bag of lentils in the cupboard. Definitely going to have a go at this!
Tracy Nixon
28/09/2013 at 5:37 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Great recipe thanks!
Camilla
28/09/2013 at 11:43 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Pleasure:-)
Lisa Williams
24/09/2013 at 1:09 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
this looks so beautiful I love currys but am never very adventurous I need to branch out and this is the perfect one to try I think 🙂
Camilla
24/09/2013 at 4:01 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thank you, I do hope you enjoy it:-)
Andrea Goodheart
22/09/2013 at 7:26 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I am so going to try this!
Camilla
22/09/2013 at 10:45 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Brilliant:-)
Ursula Hunt
13/09/2013 at 11:36 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
love a vegetable curry will give it a go 🙂
Jo Booth
08/08/2013 at 9:41 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
this sounds delicious, I think I will give this recipe a go 🙂
Jayne Sullivan
26/07/2013 at 1:06 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
This looks yummy. Always on the look out for a new vegetarian recipe.
Mich - Piece of Cake
22/10/2012 at 5:10 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I’m a big fan of Indian curries and this looks delicious. I have never figured out how to make it and seeing your post made me realise how simple it is… will try it out sometime.
Camilla
22/10/2012 at 8:48 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thank you Mich. I’m really pleased that my pictures have inspired you to have a go at making this, as they say a picture can say a thousand words!
Javelin Warrior
21/10/2012 at 2:49 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Curries are so daunting to me, mostly because I’ve never tried to make them and don’t really know much about Indian cuisine. But I love how you’ve taken the time to provide photos at each step and the coriander yogurt sounds wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing with Made with Love Mondays!
Camilla
21/10/2012 at 3:27 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Well I can’t pretend to be an expert on Indian cooking but hopefully you can see how simple this dish is to make from the photos. They do take me ages to post but I can’t stop doing them now, hopefully they will encourage more people to have a go at cooking!
Jacqueline @How to be a Gourmand
21/10/2012 at 2:21 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Did you do a bit of weightlifting with the 5kg of Basmati rice 🙂 Sounds like you got a great bargain Camilla.
I’ve never tried ccoking Dahl before – I like the way you have added more garlic, ginger and cumin seeds to the recipe. And the addition of coriander yoghurt – YUM!!
Camilla
21/10/2012 at 2:30 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
It was very tasty and the coriander yogurt really went well with it. In fact I should probably flag this up as low fat as well!