Vegan tarka dal

Our home is coming along. The American walnut floating shelves are almost finished, which means my cookbooks will soon have their forever home and the next nook of our house will be complete.

I know I’ve already posted a dal recipe on here previously but stay with me on this one, because that was before this tarka dal was born. I thought my hidden veg dal was good but I don’t always have eggplant handy. If I’m going to make dal without much in the way of extra veg, I have to make sure it has lots of flavour. There’s no point having dal if it doesn’t have layers upon layers of flavour… that’s where my recipe for tarka dal comes in.

Vegan tarka dal
Serves 4

1 tsp coconut oil
1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 brown onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3cm piece of ginger, finely grated
8 curry leaves
3 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 cup red split lentils, washed and soaked for 2 hours
1 cup yellow split lentils, washed and soaked for 2 hours
5-6 cups filtered water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp garam masala
Fresh coriander

Heat coconut oil in a saucepan then cook mustard and cumin seeds until fragrant. Add onions to the pan and let caramelise.

Add garlic, ginger and curry leaves to the pan, and cook for 3-4 minutes. Mix in tomatoes, cashews, turmeric and chilli powder, then add lentils, water and salt. Stir until combined.

Bring to the boil and reduce to simmer for approx. 20 minutes or until lentils have softened. Stir occasionally to avoid it catching on the bottom of the saucepan. If it’s getting a bit dry and the lentils aren’t soft enough yet, just add a little more water.

Mix through garam masala and cook a further 5-10 minutes.

Remove from heat and use a hand blender to blitz the tomatoes and cashews.

Serve with fresh coriander and basmati rice.