Masaledar Masoor Dal (Spiced Red Lentil Dal)

I forgot to add the onion to my dal! I mean, it was still delicious! But I'm so mad at myself for forgetting the onion. It was even all sliced and ready to go. I just forgot to sprinkle it on when serving. Oh well... hopefully we can have it with the leftovers.

This is another legume curry that I liked surprisingly much. It contains a lot of cilantro and mint. I was worried that the mint would be overpowering. But it was actually delicious! (And used up some of our huge oversupply of mint. So... bonus!)

I normally wouldn't count herbs as a vegetable. They're seasonings. They're delicious. But you're generally not eating enough of them to be nutritionally significant. But when you're adding 1 1/2 c. of herbs to 1 c. of lentils... at that point, I think it actually does count as a vegetable! And a tasty one at that!

Masaledar Masoor Dal

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. skinned split brown lentils (masoor dal/red lentils/Egyptian lentils)
• 3 c. water
• 1 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 c. fresh mint
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 2-4 fresh green serrano, Thai, or finger chilies
• 2 Tbsp. ghee (or canola oil for a vegan option)
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. Punjabi garam masala
• 1 onion, halved and sliced

Directions

1. Thoroughly rinse and drain the lentils.
2. Add to a pot with the water and bring to a boil.
3. Skim off any foam that forms.
4. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until tender (10-15 minutes).
5. Meanwhile, add the cilantro, mint, garlic, and chilies to a food processor¹ and pulse until finely chopped.
6. Heat the ghee over medium heat.
7. Add the cumin seeds and sizzle for 10-20 seconds.
8. Add the minced herb blend and cook until garlic beings to brown (~5 minutes; longer if you added water to it when chopping).
9. Once the lentils are cooked, add the herb blend to the pot.
10. Stir in the salt and garam masala and simmer until flavours are absorbed (~5 minutes).
11. Serve topped with raw onion slices.

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¹ I don't have a food processor, so I chopped my herbs in the blender with the "food chop" setting. This, unfortunately, doesn't work as well as a food processor, so I had to add a little bit of liquid to get everything to chop. I just drained off some of the lentil cooking water for this. This worked, but did make the herb blend much wetter than it would have otherwise been, which then necessitated cooking it much longer once it was added to the pan. Alternatively, you could also just chop everything by hand. This will take a little more active effort on your part, but will obviate the need to extend the cooking time in the pan. Or, you know, just get a food processor and use that! ^Back