Thursday, August 6, 2009

Mom's Versatile Lentil stew

Another low-cost lunch or dinner alternative is my mom's basic daal recipe. From the first time I tried daal at an Indian restaurant, I immediately felt as if I could have this dish everyday. Problem is that many people (including myself) are sometimes put off by the sheer number of spices that have to be gathered, and added to the dish. And now that I've started a slow-carb, high-protein diet (after reading Tim Ferriss' post on how he lost 20 pounds in 30 days), I was in need of a simple and fast recipe, that allowed to both enjoy my food and stick with my diet. Luckily, my mom saved the day, and gave me her delicious daal recipe. Mind you it's less a real daal dish than just an inventive ( and mighty tasty) lentil recipe. Thanks Mom!

Ingredients:

1 Onion
1 tsp butter
1 tbsp sunflower seed oil (or any other kind of vegetable oil, except olive oil)
1 clove of garlic
200 gr of lentils
1l chicken broth
1 bayleaf
Preparation

1. Finely chop the onion and garlic.

2. Heat up the oil and melt the butter and once hot, add the chopped onion and garlic. Stir until glazy.

3. Rinse the lentils in water, leave them in the water and microwave them for 2 min at the highest setting (mine is 900w).

4.Strain the water from the lentils and add the lentils to the onion and garlic. Add the bayleaf and a twig of thyme. Add peper and salt to taste.

5. Add the chicken stock so that the lentils are covered. Don't add all of the stock at once. When some of the chicken stock has evaporated, add some more. Leave the lentils to simmer for about 30 minutes and check. If necessary, let them simmer for another 15 minutes and a a little more stock. When they're done (i.e. they're a little softer than al dente pasta, but I guess this depends on how you like them), make sure there's a little but of broth left at the bottom of the pot.

This dish goes great with grilled chicken, grilled turkey or porkchop. I really like the combo of grilled chicken, lentils and fresh bell pepper.

Let me know what you think and as always, bon appetit!!

No comments: