Recipe for Mung Bean and Red Lentil Daal | Comfort Food.

Chilly is the Evening Time.
pop quiz: the lyric above is from what song and artist? clue: the end of the day for Napoleon was a bit ruffled.
Some of you may recall that nearly 30 years ago – yes 30! – we ventured on a two-day ski trip to Auli, a ski resort, of sorts, in the Indian Himalayan Mountains. The resort was fully inclusive, as long as you enjoyed aloo-gobi for every meal.
As #winteriscoming, my comfort food recipe for a dry version of aloo-gobi accompanied by daal and warmed naan bread is unbeatable. My version of daal uses mung beans as I like the bit of bite they retain; baby food is not really my thing.
Ingredients for Mung Bean and Red Lentil Daal
- 125g Mung Beans; washed
- 125g Red Lentils; washed
- 1tsp ground Turmeric
- ½ Onion; finely chopped
- 1 clove Garlic; very finely chopped
- 1tsp Root Ginger; finely grated
- 1 Green Chilli; finely chopped
- 3tblsp chopped Tomatoes; from a tin
- ½tsp Garam Masala
- Handful fresh Coriander; torn
- 2 Red Chillies; roughly chopped
- Oil
How to Make Mung Bean and Red Lentil Daal
- Place the beans and lentils in a large pan; half fill with boiling water.
- Return to the boil; remove from heat, drain and rinse away any surface scum produced.
- Return bean/lentil mix to pan with double volume of boiling water.
- Add turmeric and seasoning; simmer for about 30mins; until the lentils have broken down. Add more boiling water if the mix become too dry.
- In a separate non-stick pan, heat a splash of oil, fry the onion for about a minute; add the garlic, fry for another minute.
- Add the tomato, ginger and green chilli to the onion and continue to fry until quite dry and shiny.
- Combine this paste with the bean/lentil mix and add Garam Masala.
- Transfer to serving dish and top with coriander and red chillies.