If you reckon you might be eating too much meat in your diet, you don’t have to turn completely vegetarian. But it isn’t difficult to go vego (vegetarian) for maybe one day a week.
My wife, Diane, and I have been doing this lately by cooking with red lentils. These cook up very quickly and, like most beans, peas and pulses, are highly nutritious as well.
Half a cup of dried lentils is enough for one serving. Add 2 to 3 times that volume of water, bring it to the boil, stir and simmer for around 15 min until the lentils have broken up and the mixture has thickened to a porridge-like texture.
I normally add a thinly sliced or shredded dark green vegetable, such as silver beet or Chinese bok choy or choy sum. This adds a little more flavour and makes your dahl more visibly appealing.
Since I enjoy my food rather spicy, I like to flavour my dahl with curry powder, a little chilli paste or even both. You get the maximum flavour from them if you fry the powder or paste first, in a little hot oil before you add the uncooked lentils and cold water. And don’t forget to add a generous amount of salt to taste.
Cooked lentils or dahl is best served with brown rice or even cooked quinoa. I also know of one bachelor friend who uses his electric rice cooker and just throws in the dried lentils together with the rice and cooks them up together. If you try this, I recommend that you stir the mixture from time to time before it starts to solidify. But once the water has mostly boiled away, you’d better leave the top of the rice cooker and allow it to do its thing.