My first attempt at lentils/dal

I noticed a five pound bag of jasmine rice on clearance at Target last week. After my discounts, I would end up paying $1 per pound for this delightful rice. Could not resist. 

Then on another visit, I passed the dried beans. They were on cartwheel and chickpeas were on clearance. So I bought black beans, four bags of chick peas and a bag of lentils.

My friends from India had fed me dal and this was one of my only experiences with lentils. I decided to be brave. I decided to be adventurous. 

Tonight I made lentils.

And my fancy rice.

I served with a mini Lebanese pita because I didn't have naan.

Delightful. But I have a mountain of rice, lentils and my dal veggie mix left.

I started one cup rice in the steamer.

I boiled four cups water as instructed by the bag of lentils. Tossed one cup lentils into water, turned heat down, covered them and forgot them for 15-20 minutes. 

In my huge Le Creuset skillet, I dumped:

- one can garbanzo beans

- about 1 cup butternut squash

- one steam-in-bag Market pantry frozen cauliflower (four servings), chopped

- peas, about three servings

I periodically added water to keep everything wet and make a sauce. To give the sauce some texture I added:

- 4 ounces coconut water/lemonade

- 1/2 cup skim milk

(The milk added nothing. Leave it out and make this dish vegan!)

Once that got cooking I started adding my spices. I just tossed stuff in the pan, so measurements are VERY approximate:

- one tablespoon fresh chives, diced

- one tablespoon crystallized ginger, diced very fine

- two teaspoons ground ginger 

- almost one tablespoon garlic powder 

- one tablespoon plus curry powder

- about 1/8 teaspoon hot Indian chili powder

- two teaspoons cumin

- two teaspoons paprika

- two teaspoons cardamom 

Once that got saucy and delicious I plopped about 2/3 of my cooked lentils into it (the rest wouldn't fit) and voilà!