After attending a really lovely cookery demo by the super talented Fiona Staunton of Fiona’s Food for Life last week, I felt so inspired (thank you Fiona!) to get braver in the kitchen, and try my hand at lentil dahl again. Fiona made us (among many dishes!) an absolutely gorgeous Red Lentil Dahl which was probably my favourite thing I got to try at her demo. I had planned to recreate it at the weekend, but as I was missing a few ingredients to match Fiona’s recipe but I did have red lentils and veggies to use up, I decided to try a recipe creation for the blog inspired by Fiona, and it worked a treat! So let’s get cooking – and I would 100% recommend checking out Fiona’s recipes on her website and her cookery demos too, your happy tummy will thank you for it!

Recipe (Serves 7-8)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or your preferred oil for cooking!)
• 1 red onion
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
• 1/2 tsp mild chili powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp ground turmeric
• 2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
• 250g button mushrooms
• 1 medium aubergine
• 500g red lentils
• 1 400g tin of chickpeas
• 2 x 400ml tins of chopped tomatoes
• 1.5L of vegetable stock or water
• Seasoning: A pinch of salt and a couple of twists of black pepper

Method

1. Soak the red lentils in a bowl in cold water while you prepare the veggies. De-stem, wash and slice up the mushrooms, and chop up the aubergine into 1 inch chunks. Peel and chop the onion, then peel and finely dice the garlic clove.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large pot on a medium heat, then add the onions and garlic. Cook for 3-4 minutes to sweat the onions.
3. Add the mushrooms and aubergine next, and cook for another 4-5 minutes to soften them.
4. Add the spices and cook for another 3-4 minutes to coat the veggies in them.
5. Add the soy sauce (or tamari), chopped tomatoes and chickpeas – stir to mix everything up.
6. Finally, drain the lentils, and add them to the pot. Add the water (or stock if you’re using it) and make sure the lentils are covered with water in the pot.
7. Bring to the boil, season, and then turn down the heat to the lowest setting to simmer the dahl.
8. Simmer for about 25-30 minutes to allow the lentils to soak up the liquid and cook – you will need to stir the dahl every 5 minutes or so to stop the lentils sticking to the bottom of the pot.
9. You’re good to go once you’ve simmered! Serve as the dahl is, or with a side of greens and a dollop of yoghurt on top (my favourite!)

Enjoy guys! Tag me if you try this recipe out – @theirishbalance on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook!

Ciara 🙂 x