Coconut tarka dhal

This creamy coconut tarka dhal ticks so many boxes:

• ready in under 30 minutes

• easy midweek dinner

• nutritious

• affordable

It makes it a great meal for batch cooking and is really versatile. You can serve it as I did with a couple of paratha for dipping, or you could serve it alongside another source of protein and some rice. If you’re not familiar, ‘tarka’ refers to an Indian cooking technique of tempering spices in hot oil or ghee (clarified butter originating from the Indian subcontinent). In this case, I’ve used coconut oil to carry that coconut flavour throughout the dhal but vegetable oil or ghee are great, too. It’s a great way of injecting a lot of fragrance and flavour from whole spices into a dish like dhal. You can use whatever whole spices you like or use the recipe I use for mine below!

For the dhal:

1 cup red lentils

1 white onion finely chopped

200ml coconut cream

1 1/2 pint water

Generous pinch of salt

2tsp curry powder

1tsp kashmiri chilli powder (or any chilli powder you like)

For the tarka:

3tbsp coconut oil

2 garlic cloves finely sliced

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger julienned (cut into matchstick strips)

1tsp mustard seeds

1/2tsp fennel seeds

1tsp cumin seeds

2 whole chillies (I used whole because these ones were very hot but if you’re using a milder chilli and you like heat, finely slice it)

Method:

Fry up the onion in a large saucepan until softened slightly but without allowing them to catch any charring/colour. Add the lentils, coconut cream, spices, water and salt. Stir well, cover with a lid and leave to simmer for 15 minutes.

Once your dhal has been cooking for about 12 minutes, heat the coconut oil for the tarka in a saucepan and once hot and smoking slightly, add the spices, garlic, ginger and chillis in and leave to bloom for a couple of minutes until the garlic starts to turn golden.

Ladle the dhal into bowls, pour over the sizzling tarka and tuck in!