Five portions of fruit and veg and flotation tanks

[venta]

I've recently gone from thinking I didn't like lentils at all to thinking that dahl is bloody marvellous. So I was wondering whether anyone had made it at home, and could recommend a recipe.

On a whim on Monday I bought a packet of green lentils, and then had a bit of a google around for a recipe. Unfortunately, I suspect dahl (or even dhal) is one of those umbrella words that covers a multitude of variants: for a start, it seems it doesn't even have to be made with lentils. Yellow split peas are also an option. I'm slightly afraid of yellow split peas: I hate mushy peas and pease pudding, and fear that any dahl made with them might be horrible.

I took a vague average of some recipes I found, and made up my own. (Boil lentils until dead, fry onions, garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, black mustard seeds and pepper together, mix everything up. Throw in spinach. Cook until hungry. Sainsbury's don't sell otter, so I had to leave that out.) It was "ok", not bad for a first effort. It also smelt nicer than it tasted, which seems to be a peculiar property of homemade curries.

Does anyone have any instructions or general advice to offer ? Or any comments on which pulses generic dahl-from-the-takeaway might usually be made from ?

Also during my whimsical supermarket trip on Monday I bought a box of "broccoli sprouts" (which are very different from "sprouting broccoli"). The past couple of days my work baitbox has been full of a surpisingly nice salad of rocket, beetroot, chopped pepper and broccoli sprouts. I have been eating - and enjoying - something which is blatantly a weirdo health food.

I fear this might be the beginning of the end. Lentils and split peas are veering dangerously close to mungbean territory. And now broccoli sprouts. I worry that before you can say "Gillian McKeith" I shall be sprouting my own alfalfa and complaining about the lack of decent raw and unprocessed wild blue green algae on the market.

You would stop me, right ?

Comments

[smiorgan.livejournal.com]

We used to make a nice dish of puy lentils with tomatoes (tin of), anchovies, garlic etc, served on a bed of couscous and with a soft poached egg on top. Really really nice. Haven't made it recently since it may have triggered triskellian's asthma.

I think the lentil bit was made by
- frying onion and garlic
- adding lentils + tomatoes + water (rinse out tin) + anchovies + other things (mmm, capers?)
- simmer until tender / liquid has reduced

Sort of a Dhal Provencale.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Dhal Provencale

Genius :)