Masoor Dal with Yogurt Sauce

Since I saw the original recipe for this dish in June edition of Food Network Magazine, I’ve been wanting to try it. However, I always felt it would be more of a fall dish - how wrong was I! I got some beautiful produce from a local produce stand Friday morning, especially beautiful grape tomatoes and mini bell peppers which made me think of this dish. I added the peppers to the original dish and substituted the original 2 regular tomatoes with a bunch if grape tomatoes. I added a labneh style yogurt sauce and served it with store bought naan bread, but felt it didn’t even necessarily need the bread.

I will definitely add this to the rotation of my regular dishes. Hope you enjoy it too!

The recipe makes about four servings.

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 tomatoes, chopped (I used 12 grape tomatoes)

2 mini bell peppers, chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger

1 1/2 tbsp curry powder

1 1/4 cups dried red lentils

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 1/2 cups water

Fresh cilantro for garnish

1 to 2 red chili peppers, thinly sliced for garnish

STEPS;

1.Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, tomatoes, peppers and salt and cook until soft and excess liquid has evaporated, about 8 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and curry powder and cook stirring until softened, about 3 minutes.

2. Add the lentils and stir to coat with the vegetable mix, Add the water and 1/2 tsp salt and bring to simmer. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until lentils are tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3. Serve with a spoonful of yogurt sauce (recipe to follow), cilantro and chiles.

YOGURT SAUCE:

1 7oz container full fat Greek yogurt

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)

Mix all together.