Easy Red Lentil Dhal Recipe

Most people don't know that I am part Sri Lankan. The cultural aspect of being Sri Lankan that I most relate to is the food. I am not going to lie, Sri Lankan food is hard to make in my opinion. Well, not entirely hard but I just can't get my food to taste like how my mom makes it. So I give up and just ask her to cook for me lol. But even when I ask her for a recipe, she can't tell me because its a little bit of this and a little bit of that, taste and then add a little more of this and a little more of that. So this Red Lentil Dhal Recipe is one thing that I actually perfected. But you can definitely add a little bit more spice according to your taste. We eat this with naan or rice. Just recently, my daughter wanted to bring this to school but she didn't want it to be messy so I made a naan stuffed with dhal. She was one happy girl.

First of is choosing the right red lentils. I buy mine from the Asian grocery store. A bag was on sale for $3 for a 2lb bag. I probably won't go through an entire bag for months. There is no need to soak these lentils, they are easy to cook. I use about 1 cup of red lentils and I rinse it under cold water a couple of times. Now it is ready for cooking. For the spices, if you don't plan to make this all the time, go buy your spices at the Bulk Barn. You can get just the right amount and pay pennies. Pandan leaves and curry leaves can also be bought at the Asian grocery store. You can omit the leaves if difficult to find. But I buy mine and they are about $2 a pack of fresh leaves and I keep them in the freezer for future recipes.

Easy Red Lentil Dhal Recipe

Ingredients
1 cup red lentils
2 cups water
2 tbsp. olive oil or ghee
1 cup coconut milk
1 tomato
2 garlic gloves
1 tbsp. ginger minced
1 small onion
1 tbsp. turmeric
2 tbsp. curry powder
1/2 tbsp. ground coriander
1/2 tbsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
3 whole cloves
2 cardamom pods
3 inch pandan leaf
5-8 curry leaves
1 tbsp. curry paste (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1)Combine lentils, pandan leaf and water in a pot and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
2)In a separate pan, heat oil. Add onions, garlic, ginger and all the spices. Heat the spices to make it more flavourful otherwise you can skip this step and just add everything to your pot.
3)Add your heated spices to your lentils and stir. Add coconut milk and tomato. Simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper.
4)Remove from heat and enjoy.

To make the naan/pita bread. I followed the instructions from this youtube video. This is a really good technique that I have used to make our naan/pita/pizza bread. The only difference is, I used whole wheat flour and sometimes even add oat flour.

To make my naan stuffed with dhal. You simply roll out the naan very thinly and carefully place a dollop of dhal. Fold in close and carefully place in a heated pan. Gently flip when one side is brown.