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Aarti's Indian Lentils with Spinach

Melty spinach <3

On the winding road toward the perfect Indian lentil recipe, I'm not willing to say that this is "the one," but it's a good one. I intend to make this one for at least a while, until I'm inspired to find a new one.

This recipe comes from the lovely Aarti Sequeira, and I followed it exactly except: I doubled the spices upon recommendation from reviews on the foodnetwork site, I used powdered cumin instead of cumin seeds because that's what I had, I used chili-garlic sauce instead of serrano chile, and I added spinach.

This recipe does take a few steps to make, but they're all fairly easy and the timing between them is flexible. Nothing gets ruined if the lentils soak too long or cook too long.

I recommend eating it over rice with plain yogurt and Indian pickle.


The Recipe: 
1c red lentils
2c water
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tb ginger root, grated
1 pint crushed tomatoes
1 tb chili-garlic sauce
salt, to taste
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika
1 tb vegetable oil
12 oz fresh spinach
handful cilantro, chopped
rice, yogurt, and Indian pickle, for serving

  • Rinse the lentils and soak for at least 30 minutes
  • Combine soaked lentils, 2c water, onion, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, and chili-garlic sauce in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then simmer over medium-low heat for about an hour until lentils are falling apart.
  • Add salt to taste, and stir in spinach.
  • Combine the dry spices in a bowl. In a separate pan over medium-high heat, heat vegetable oil, then add the dry spices and stir for 20 seconds. Add the oil and spice mixture to the pot with the lentils.
  • Serve over rice with cilantro on top, and yogurt and Indian pickle on the side.

The Verdict:
Overall grade: A-
Overall reason: Easy and healthy, good but no wow factor
Time to prepare: 2 hours
Husband quote: I forgot to get a spontaneous quote, so I later asked out of context what he thought of Indian lentils. He said "They should have all the same rights as American lentils."
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