Chickpea Dahl

Chickpea Dahl
This dahl is an ode to winter warming. It's also one of my most frequented weeknight meals, with almost all of the ingredients being pantry staples.

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 4 shallots, chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely sliced, grated or chopped
  • 2 tbsp mustard seeds
  • 1 tbsp fresh curry leaves
  • 1 tbsp turmeric
  • 2 tsp coriander
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 250g yellow split peas
  • 2 x 400g tins chickpeas
  • 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
  • 700ml water
  • 2 x tins coconut milk
  • 120g baby spinach
  • Fried shallots, to serve
  • Lime, to serve
  • Rice vermicelli noodles (I like the Wai Wai brand) or roti bread, to serve

Serves 4

Method

  1. An hour before cooking, pour split peas into a bowl and cover with water to soak. If you don’t have time for this step, it’s okay, the dahl will just take a bit longer to cook.
  2. Heat vegetable oil in a large pan over medium heat.
  3. Saute shallots, garlic cloves and mustard seeds until shallots are soft.
  4. Add curry leaves, turmeric, coriander, cumin, cinnamon stick, chickpeas, split pease tinned tomatoes, water and coconut milk and bring to a simmer.
  5. Cook for 30 minutes or more with lid slightly ajar, until split peas are tender.
  6. Stir through baby spinach.
  7. Top with fried shallots and serve with a squeeze of lime on vermicelli and/or roti bread. 

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