Split lentil Dahl

Our final recipe this week is a bit of a treat, it looks like a lot of work but once the steps are broken down it is a piece of cake! Split lentil Dahl with coriander and lime coconut milk, courgette spelt flat breads and beetroot hummus.

Packed full of delicious and nutritious treats! Lentils are an amazing source of fibre, iron and protein, beetroot is another great source of fibre, vitamins and minerals.

Recipe

• 2 cups red lentils
• 4 cups veg stock
• 1 red chilli
• Fresh ginger
• Fresh Turmeric
• Thyme
• Cumin
• Turmeric powder
• 2 red onions
• garlic
• courgette
• 2 heads cooked beetroot
• Spelt flour
• fresh coriander
• lime
• coconut oil
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 200ml coconut milk

[sc:clear ] Method
Start by making the dough for your flat breads so that it can rest in the fridge. Blend the courgette, half the red onion, a handful of thyme leaves and a good pinch of salt into a paste (I spooned some of the excess water from the top of the paste so the dough wasn’t too wet) Combine with two and a half cups of spelt flour until it forms a dough. Cover and refridgerate.

[sc:clear ] Next get the Dahl on to cook. Chop the one and a half onions that you have left finely & heat a tablespoon of coconut oil in a put. Sweat the onions for a few minutes with a few sprigs of thyme and a pinch of salt. Once they become translucent, grate in a thumb size piece of fresh ginger and half that amount of fresh turmeric. Add your chili, finely sliced and four large cloves of garlic also finely sliced. Next the dried spices, half a teaspoon of turmeric and cumin. You can now add your two cups of lentils to the pot and stir to give them a nice coating of coconut oil and spices, pour in your stock and bring to the boil. Leave it to boil for a few minutes, turn down the heat and leave the mixture to simmer gently for approx. an hour. Check every so often that there’s enough liquid and add more if required.

[sc:clear ] The beetroot hummus is next and it’s incredible simple. In a blender combine your cooked beetroot, a teaspoon of cumin, a tablespoon of olive oil, salt & pepper and a squeeze of lime. Blend the mixture is not completely smooth but has a nice consistency. Cover and refrigerate until you are ready to use.

[sc:clear ]Next is the coriander and lime coconut milk. This is a perfect cooling accompaniment to the Dahl. Combine the coconut milk,juice of half a lime and a large handful of fresh coriander in a blender. Blend until smooth. Refrigerate.

[sc:clear ] To cook the flat breads, turn a pan on to heat. Seperate your dough into four. Roll out one section of the dough on a lightly floured surface to the thickness of about two 50c coins. It’s a soft dough and if rolled out too thinly it will just fall apart so be careful with it! Lightly oil your pan, using a tiny amount of coconut oil on a piece of kitchen roll to give the pan a light covering. Fry the flatbread until golden on each side. Keep warm in a clean dry tea towel. (The flatbreads don’t keep well but the dough does so cook as many as you need and freeze the remainder)

[sc:clear ]To serve spoon some or the coriander and lime coconut milk over the Dahl, some beetroot hummus on the side and some torn flat breads to mop the whole lot up.