RED LENTIL DAHL WITH OKRA & SPINACH

Wash the coriander stalks, roots and leaves really well. Separate the stalks & roots from the leaves. You will be using all of the coriander.

Take the stalk end off the chillies, discard & chop the rest into pieces.

Peel the onion, garlic, ginger & turmeric. If the skin of the ginger & turmeric is young, just gently scrub with steel wool or similar. Roughly chop these ingredients so they will fit in the mini chopper.

Pull all the curry leaves off the stalks.

Slice the okra into little rounds (or dice the eggplant into 2cm pieces)

Finley chop; (I use my Zyliss manual mini chopper) chillies, onions, coriander roots & stalks, garlic, ginger & turmeric. All together to make a paste-like mixture.

(If you don’t have the manual mini chopper, you can use a food processor just be careful not to turn it into mush, use the blitz option, for a fine dice.)

Once all these base ingredients are finely chopped, add 2 tablespoons of butter & a tablespoon of olive oil to a heavy bottomed saucepan or use a Crockpot pressure cooker.

Let the butter melt & go frothy, add the finely chopped chillies, onions, coriander stalks & roots, garlic, ginger & turmeric. Saute for 5 minutes or so until softened.

Add half the curry leaves, the bay leaves & the okra or eggplant. Add more butter or oil if it seems to dry. Saute for 3-4 minutes.

Add the curry powder & saute for 2-3 minutes until it smells fragrant. This is where the oil from the spices are released.

Add the red lentils & the water. Add a teaspoon of salt flakes & ground white pepper. Bring it to the simmer if cooking on the stove top. Turn down to low & simmer gently for 20 minutes or so. Stir every now & then. If using the crockpot, put onto the soup pressure cooker setting amd lid & press start.

While it cooks, dice the tomatoes & roughly chop the coriander leaves & juice the lemon.

After 20 minutes taste to see if the red lentils are collapsing into mush & creating a thick soup. If they are great, if not cook a further 10 minutes or so. The crockpot will automatically turn off when it’s ready.

When the lentils are ready add the tomatoes, season with salt & pepper if needed.

Melt the last tablespoon of butter, when it’s frothy add the curry leaves & let them crisp up a bit.

Add the coriander, leaves, the baby spinach & the lemon juice into the dahl. Bring it back to simmer & stir through the ingredients.

Just before serving pour the melted butter & curry leaves over the top, serve in big bowls with a dollop of greek yogurt.

You can leave out the melted butter & curry leaves part if you want to save time.