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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