“This is the ultimate comfort food, the Indian version of cottage pie, loved by everyone young and old, easily digestible highly nutritious, easy and economical to prepare, who could ask for more. My late father used to prepare this for me and I found this recipe in his handwritten cookbook, I hope you feel the love when you prepare it too.”

Ingredients

• 1 Cup split moong beans
• 1 cup of white basmati rice
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp of cumin seeds/ toasted in a dry frying pan for 3-4 mins
• 5 black peppercorns
• Sea salt to taste
• 2 tbs ghee (clarified butter)

Kadhi (sauce)

• 1.5 cups low fat yoghurt
• 3 tbs gram flour
• 15g jaggery
• 2 tsp ghee
• 1 de seeded finely chopped green pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 5 curry leaves

Method

1. Cover the moong beans and the rice with water and soak for 45 mins.
2. Rinse the beans and the rice and add the spices and salt cover with water so that there is 2cm of water above the grains.
3. Bring to boil then turn the heat down to a simmer and cover. Cook on a low heat for approximately 10 mins, when holes appear in the rice and water is evaporated the rice is cooked.
4. Add the ghee stir through and serve.

To prepare the Kadhi

1. Combine the yoghurt and the gram flour with 3.5 cups of water and blend in the blender or use a hand whisk until completely smooth, add the crushed ginger and de- seeded chilli pepper, sugar and 1tsp sea salt, mix well.
2. Place in a saucepan and heat stirring continuously until the mixture boils. Remove from the heat and keep aside.
3. Heat the ghee in a pan add the crushed ginger and seeds when they start to crackle add the curry leaves and green chilli and mix well, remove from the heat and immediately pour over the pre-made kadhi.

Portion out the khichdi and and pour over the kadhi and enjoy super yum yum yum! Serve with papad.

“This is my favourite dal and have been enjoying it since childhood, my mother would always make double the quantity and save it for the next day as it tasted much better served cold with a really hot crispy tikkar – a crispy Sindhi style thick roti with a lot of desi ghee”

Ingredients

• 100g Chana dal
• 100g split black urad dal
• 100g split green moong dal
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 2 green chillies
• 2 tsp cooking oil
• 2 tsp desi ghee
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 100g chopped onion
• 150g chopped tomato
• 1.5 tsp chopped garlic
• 1tsp chopped ginger
• 2tsp chopped coriander
• 1/2 tsp garam masala

Method

1. Mix the three different lentil and wash in cold running water until the water runs clear, then allow to soak for at least half an hour in 750ml of lukewarm water.
2. In a large pot, add the dal and the water, turmeric and whole green chillies. Bring to the boil, skim the surface and remove and scum, cover the pot and allow to cook a medium low heat. If you have a pressure cooker this process may be speeded up.
3. Ensure that the dal is full cooked and add some more water if the dal is very thick.
4. In a frying pan you can now prepare the tempering or ‘tarka’. Heat the oil and desi ghee, add the cumin seeds. When they crackle, add the chopped onions and fry until light brown.
5. Add the chopped garlic and ginger and cook for a few minutes, then add the chopped tomato and chilli poweder. Allow the cook until the oil leaves the mix.
6. Add the tarka to the dal, along with salt to taste, and the garam masala. Cook on a low heat for ten minutes. Serve hot, garnished with chopped fresh coriander.

Ingredients

• Splash oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 small onions, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1⁄4 tsp cloves, ground
• Pinch cinnamon
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp veg stock
• Large pinch salt
• 90g red lentils
• 1 courgette
• 1 tin chickpeas
• 1⁄2 block of creamed coconut
• Salt & pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat the mustard seeds in the oil on a low heat, cover & leave whilst the mustard seeds pop and release natural flavour and aroma.
2. Meanwhile chop the onion, add this to the pan when the mustard seeds have stopped popping.
3. Stir to cook onion & add the crushed garlic & chopped courgette and spices.
4. Once the courgette is starting to look cooked, add the lentils along with some water the tinned tomato, coconut, salt & stock.
5. Cover & leave the lentils to cook, stir occasionally to stop sticking, add more water if necessary.
6. Once lentils are soft add chickpeas and cook through until piping hot.
7. Serve with flatbreads or rice.

The recipe is from chef Radhikah of Radikal Kitchen.

Ingredients

• Chana dal / yellow split lentils 50 gm ( 4.5 tablespoons)
• Arhar dal/ pigeon peas 50 gm
• Masoor dal / red lentils 50 gm
• Moong dal / mung lentils 50 gm
• Urad / split black lentils 50gmGhee 3 tbsp
• Turmeric powder 2 tsp
• Cumin seeds 2 tsp
• Bay leaves 4-5
• Large cardamoms 4
• Cloves 5-6
• Ginger. 3 tsp chopped
• Asafoetida a pinch
• Tamarind, small piece soaked in water
• Jaggery / sugar ¼ tsp

Method

1. Wash all the daals and soak for one hour.
2. Pressure cook all the daals in 4 cups of water, salt, turmeric powder, ginger for 15 minutes. If not using pressure cook, then cook in boiling water until done.
3. Tempering: In a pan, heat the ghee. Then add the cumin seeds, cloves, asafoetida, bay leaves, and cardamom. Add this tempering to the cooked daal.
4. Finally add the tamarind pulp to the daal, mix well and simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve with rice or roti.

This is from chef Radhikah of Radikal Kitchen and is her mum’s recipe.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Daal

• Chana dal/ Split chickpea – 1 cup (rinse, soak the dal for 45 min – 1 hour to soften it)
• 3-4 cloves
• Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
• Cumin powder – 1 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Sugar – pinch
• Bottle gourd – 2 cups, chopped
• 1 large onion – finely chopped
• Water – 4 cups
• Coriander leaves to garnish

Tempering

• Ghee – 2 tablespoons
• Cumin seeds 1 tsp
• 3-4 red chillies

Method

1. Cook the daal with the salt, cloves, turmeric powder and sugar until 70% done. I
   normally use a pressure cooker to cook my daals. So it takes about 10-12 minutes
   for this to cook.
2. Cool the daal. Then add the chopped bottle gourd to the semi cooked daal and cook
   for another 5 minutes until done. Add some water if it is very thick.
3. In a separate pan, heat the ghee, add the red chillies
4. Add the chopped onions and sauté until deep golden brown. Add this to the lentils.
5. To temper the daal: Heat ghee, when hot add the cumin seeds and red chillies.
6. Pour over the daal
7. Mix well. Garnish with the chopped coriander leaves.

A side note on tempering

Tempering is a flavour enhancing techniques to jazz up daals in an instant, and is fairly unique to Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan cooking. For daals this is typically done at the end of the cooking process.

The hot ghee/butter/oil extracts the flavours of the whole spices to infuse the oil. The hot fat locks and retains the flavour of the spices and when this spice-infused fat, is added to the dish it intensifies the flavour of the dish multifold.

It is a rapid process and takes a couple of minutes. It is the grand finale of the dish. There are lots of variations and ways to temper the daals, including baghar, tadka, chonk, podhni and thalipu.

How to temper:

1. Heat oil/ghee /butter in small pan until hot. The oil should be hot enough to make the spices sizzle and dance.
2. First to go are whole spices, dry red chillies, lentils – depending on what you are using.
3. South Indian tadkas often add fresh curry leaves. Those can be added right after the mustard seeds (they splatter, so one has to be careful).
4. The general rule of thumb is to put spices that burn easily in the end.

Bristol based company, The Spicery, specialises in recipe kit creation; they measure, grind and blend spices freshly before sending them to tens of thousands of home cooks around the world. More recently, they’ve launched the Curry Legend Cookbook Kit – a combination of a cookbook with 4 special spice blends that can be used to make any of the recipes in the book!

This recipe for Bisi Bele Bhaat is taken from the newest member of the Curry Legend series of cookbooks – Curry Legend Veg – which features over 80 brand new recipes that give vegetables the starring role!

Each of the four special Curry Legend blends are available on The Spicery’s website, or you could use the suggested substitutions in the recipe for a similar result.

SERVES 4 • Prep time: 10 minutes • Cooking time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 medium carrots – peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
• 125g green beans – cut into bite-size pieces
• 3 tomatoes – cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 lemon
• 2 cloves of garlic – thinly sliced
• 10g bunch of coriander – finely chopped
• 150g basmati or standard long grain rice (not easy cook)
• 100g yellow split peas
• ½ tsp 2 tbsp desiccated coconut
• 2 tsp HALDI BLEND or 1 tsp of turmeric
• 3 tsp METHI BLEND or 1 ½ tsp garam masala
• ½ tsp MIRCHI BLEND or ½ tsp chilli powder
• 2 tsp JEERA BLEND or 1 tsp whole cumin seeds

Method

1. Boil the carrots, tomatoes, yellow split peas and 2 tsp HALDI BLEND in 1.2l water in a covered pan for 25 minutes until the split peas are beginning to soften.
2. Toast the desiccated coconut in a dry pan for 2 minutes or until golden then mix with 3 tsp METHI BLEND and ½ tsp MIRCHI BLEND to make the toasted coconut podi powder.
3. Add the rice, green beans, ¾ of the toasted coconut podi powder (save the remaining mix to add at the table) and 1 ½ tsp salt to the yellow split pea mixture then cover and cook for 20 minutes or until the rice and yellow split peas are cooked through and you have a thick pulpy soup, a bit like a slightly wet risotto.
4. Fry 2 tsp JEERA BLEND and the garlic in 2 tbsp hot oil for 30 seconds or until the seeds just start to pop and jump around, then pour all of the spices, garlic and oil over the top of the bisi bele bhaat.
5. Stir the juice of ½ the lemon into the bisi bele bhaat then serve with the remaining toasted coconut podi powder, coriander and remaining ½ lemon cut into wedges on the side.

SERVES 4 • Prep time: 15 minutes • Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 250g left-over cooked chana dal
• 280g Whole wheat or chapatti flour
• A handful of fresh, finely-chopped coriander – handful
• 1 green chilli, finely chopped
• 100ml water approx. (depending on consistency)
• Spices for rice
• 1 tsp carom seeds
• Salt – to taste
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil – 4 tbsp

Method

1. To make the dough mix the flour, cooked lentils, coriander, green chillies, carom seeds, a little oil and salt together in a large bowl.
2. First mix the lentils well with the dough and see if water is required. Add water gradually, kneading all the time with your hand (for 8-10 mins) to make the dough firm and smooth. Cover and leave to rest for at 10-15 minutes.
3. Divide the dough into small to medium balls. Roll the balls in the palms of your hands. Dust the balls lightly with flour and roll into flat round circles using a board and rolling pin. Apply a little oil or ghee on this circle.
4. Then roll it up lengthways, like a Swiss roll. Now holding one end start rolling inwards like a cinnamon roll.
5. Flatten this round roll slightly with your fingers and lightly dust with flour. Roll again into a circle but make sure to not roll very thin.
6. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat until it is quite hot. Place the rolled parathas onto the pan and turn up the heat slightly. You will see the paratha puffing up from the base on some sides. Flip the paratha and apply ghee on this side. Wait for the other side to puff up and flip again cooking until at least one side goes crisp. Serve hot with any lentil or vegetable dish.

Top tip: It’s best practice to let the dough rest so you can even make the dough in advance but make sure to bring to room temperature before cooking.

Most of us cooking these yummy dals at home have a full-time job, kids, trying to be healthy at the same time and to top it all hardly any time! Ideally, I like soaking my pulses overnight and cooking them in a pressure cooker with spices and all; it does add that extra aroma to the pulse but that’s a weekend thing when there’s ample time.

This is my favourite go to recipe where I don’t have to think much as it uses all the basic Indian spices and where comfort, convenience and health go hand in hand. If you’re trying to avoid white rice, I prefer the texture of quinoa compared to brown rice but it’s up to you.

To be honest I can have this curry on its own with a dollop of yoghurt. Don’t worry if you’re missing an ingredient, it’ll still taste good as long as you have the kidney beans for the kidney bean curry!

Serves 4-6 • Prep time: 10 minutes • Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 can of red kidney beans , drained and run underwater for a few seconds
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 1 tomato finely chopped
• 2 tsp tomato puree
• 4 cloves of garlic and 1 inch of ginger pounded to a paste
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp amchoor (dry mango powder (from an Asian supermarket, or Waitrose!)
• 1 tsp garam masala
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 cup water
• A handful of coriander leaves to garnish
• Quinoa or rice to serve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed sauce pan, on a medium to high flame make sure the oil is really hot. Then add the cumin; let it sizzle for a few seconds.
2. Add the chopped onions and sauté until golden brown. Next add the ginger garlic paste, turmeric and chilli powder and stir for another couple of minutes.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes and soften it for about 3 minutes. Then add the tomato puree and mix for another 2 minutes.
4. Now add the washed beans to the saucepan and stir them well until the mixture really sticks. Mash them a little with the back of your spoon. Mashing 1/3 of the beans will give a creamy texture to your curry.
5. Add the garam masala, amchoor and salt. Pour in the water and bring to the boil. Garnish with coriander, and serve with rice or quinoa.

SERVES 2-3

Ingredients

• 300g red split lentils, washed and drained
• 1.5 tbsp cooking oil, coconut oil or ghee
• 1 litre of water
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or finely chopped
• 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger (leave the skin on)
• 1 tomato, chopped or 100ml passat
• ½ tsp. dried red chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 0.5 tsp ground cumin
• 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• salt & pepper

Method

1. In a medium pan, add the oil and then the onion, Soften on a medium heat for 5-8 minutes.
2. Add the garlic, ginger to the pan and cook for 2-2 minutes.
3. Add the curry powder, coriander, turmeric, cumin, cinnamon and dried red chilli flakes . Stir for about 30 seconds.
4. Add the tomato, lentils  and 800ml of the  water stir until all completely mixed together.
5. Season generously salt and pepper.
6. Optional extra: In a frying pan, add 1-2 tablespoons of oil and get very hot. (Take care!)
7. Add a handful of curry leaves, teaspoon of mustard seeds, caraway seeds and a sliced red chilli. Fry for a couple of minutes and then pour over the dal and stir through before serving.