Buy the bookIndian Greens, Dal and Rice
july 3, 2013

I am really lucky, because both my kids love to eat dal. As tiny toddlers they could never get enough rice and chickpea soup at dinnertime. Now that he is in Kindergarten, my son and I share a weekly buffet lunch at the restaurant next d0or to his speech therapist's office. He loves to serve himself out of the buffet, I love to order dal from the kitchen. 

There are many different variations, but this one is our favorite. It is easy to cook with simple ingredients: chana dal (aka split chickpeas or Bengal gram), tomatoes, ginger, garlic, salt, bay leaf, cumin seeds, chili powder, turmeric, cilantro and a single green chili (instead of the recipe's two - to make it not too spicy). The recipe is on p. 193 of Camellia Panjabi's 50 Great Curries of India.

I serve it with rice (cooked with butter, 5 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick and 2 green cardamom pods) and curried greens (wash and chop greens, saute a thinly sliced shallot in vegetable oil, add greens, stir and cook, add your favorite curry powder, some salt, continue to cook until well wilted). On this particular evening we also had Cabbage with Spices and Tomato, a recipe on p. 181 of the same book.

When I can swing it, two vegetable dishes are better than one: we have more healthy options to eat and use up the produce box quickly. 

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

The comments to this entry are closed.

Authors:

--> Alice Waters
Amanda Cohen
Andrea Reusing
Andy Ricker
Beata Zatorska
Bruce Aidells
Camilla Panjabi
canal house
Caroline Grant
Charlotte Druckman
Christopher Hirsheimer
Cindy Mushet
Clotilde Dusoulier
Cuisine at Home
Dan Jurafsky
deborah madison
Diane Morgan
eatwell farm
Eddie Huang
Erin Gleeson
Evan Kleiman
Food 52
Fore Adventure
Frog Hollow Farm
Gourmet Magazine
Grace Young
Grace Young
Heidi Swanson
Hollis Wilder
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Irma Rombauer
Isabella Gerasole
Jay Harlow
Joyce Goldstein
Lisa Catherine Harper
Lisa Fain
Lisa Leake
Louella Hill
Lucinda Scala Quinn
Lynne Alley
Madhur Jaffrey
Malvi Doshi
Marcus Samuelsson
Marion Nestle
mark bittman
Mary Roach
Melissa Hamilton
Michael Pollan
Molly Watson
Naomi Duguid
nigel slater
Nigella Lawson
Pollan Family
Roy Choi
Ryan Dunlavey
Salma Abdelnour
Sam Mogannam
San Francisco Chronicle
Saveur Magazine
SF Marin Food Bank
Shelley Lindgren
Slivena Rowe
Stephanie Alexander
Steve Sando
Sunset Magazine
tamar adler
The Chew
The Kitchn
Toby Sonneman
Tom Hudgens
vegetarian times
Victor Antoine d'Avila Latourrette
waitrose kitchen
Yotam Ottolenghi
Zoe Nathan