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.

Photo courtesy Jenny Chandler

Ingredients

• 200g / 7oz  yellow split peas, rinsed and drained
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp capers, rinsed
• 1 tbsp roughly chopped parsley
• A few very finely sliced pieces of red onion.

Method

1. Place the split peas, bay leaves, the onion and enough cold water to cover everything by a couple of cm in a saucepan. Bring the water up to the boil skimming away any scum or froth.
2. Now simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring from time to time and, if necessary, adding a little extra water to keep the peas just covered.
3. Add the salt and continue to simmer until the beans are very tender and almost dry.
4. Remove the bay leaves and allow the split peas to cool for a few minutes before you puree them with a hand held blender or in a food processor.
5. Don’t worry, the peas will taste bland and flabby, they will be screaming for seasoning. Add the garlic, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, freshly ground black pepper and more salt, if required, until you have a wonderfully balanced puree.
6. Spoon into a bowl and allow to cool completely, letting the flavours get to know each other.
7. Serve with a sprinkling of capers, the parsley, red onion and a splash of extra virgin oil.

Try topping the fava with any combination of the following:

• Chopped fresh oregano, coriander or parsley
• A few chopped Kalamata olives,
• Diced tomato and a handful of rocket.
• A sprinkling of roasted cumin seeds and sweet Aleppo or Urfi chilli flakes

This recipe was originally published by Jenny Chandler on her blog I’ve Mostly Been Eating and demonstrated at our 2018 Grand Dal Finale.

Jenny is a big part of the British Dal Festival – she’ll be demonstrating her dals and leading workshops for children at the Grand Dal Finale, and has also developed our educational pack to get children cooking dal at school.

Soaking the peas for a few hours will speed up the cooking but they do only take about 45 minutes to cook from scratch.

Serves 4 (with rice or flatbreads)

Ingredients

• 250g Split Yellow Peas
• ½ tsp Turmeric
• About 1 litre Water
• 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
• 1 tsp Whole Cumin Seeds
• 1 Onion, finely diced
• 3cm piece of Ginger, finely diced
• 2 dried Red Chillis, chopped (or any fresh or dried, green or red, depending on your preference for heat
• 2 cloves Garlic
• ½ tsp Ground Coriander
• ½ tsp Garam Masala
• 200g Chopped Tinned Tomatoes (or 4 skinned and chopped ripe tomatoes, if in season)
• 200g Fresh Spinach, washed and roughly chopped (if using baby spinach, just leave it whole)
• Handful Fresh Coriander, chopped (optional, to garnish)
• Pinch Amchur – dried sour mango (optional, to garnish)

Method

1. Rinse the split peas in a sieve, place in a large saucepan with the turmeric and cover with about 1 litre of cold water.
2. Bring the pan up to the boil and then cover and simmer for about 30 minutes to an hour until the peas are quite soft and creamy. You may need to add more water as the peas cook; I like my dal to have quite a thick texture and some discernible peas whilst others prefer a soupier creamy finish.
3. Whilst the peas are cooking you can fry up the spiced tomato mixture in a small frying pan.
4. Heat up the oil and fry off the whole cumin seeds until fragrant.
5. Add the onion, chilli and ginger and cook for about 10 minutes until the onion begins to soften.
6. Turn up the heat and stir in the garlic, coriander and garam masala, cooking just until you are enveloped in all the wonderful smells. Add the tomatoes and simmer for a couple of minutes.
7. Once the split peas are soft and cooked through you can add the tomato mixture, along with a pinch of salt ,and continue to cook for about 5 minutes.
8. Throw in the spinach at the last moment, it barely requires any cooking at all, just a couple of minutes in the hot dal will wilt it beautifully. Kale or Swiss chard are also great options and take about 5 minutes to cook in the dal over a medium heat.
9. You could add chopped fresh coriander or a pinch of amchur powder (dried sour mango) just before serving.
10. Serve hot with plain rice or flat bread.

This recipe was created by Jenny Chandler for Hodmedod.

Photo courtesy Jenny Chandler.