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Ready in just 20 mins, this mildly-spiced dal fry (lentil curry) is really easy to make, frugal, filling, and comforting, plus it’s only 182 calories per serving!
Last year, you may recall, I had to have some extensive dental surgery to rebuild my upper jaw – for several weeks, I was unable to eat anything other than really soft foods (yay, ice cream!), so soups, such as mulligatawny or leek and potato, and avocado hummus (by the spoonful, of course) became de rigeur.
Chewy, chunky foods were right out, which of course meant that I immediately wanted to eat all the things!
(Yes, sausages, I’m looking at you!)
Fortunately, when I lived in Thailand, I’d learned to make juk (congee), which kept me going for a while but (wo)man cannot live on juk alone.
Dal fry to the rescue! It’s another recipe taught to me by my friend, Usha, when I was living in Fort Kochi. In fact, it was one of the first recipes she taught me.
As well as being super-easy to make, dal fry is also highly-nourishing, and packed with essential Vits and Mins. One of the things that I love about this dish is that it can be made as thick or thin as you like, so as my jaw healed, I was able to go from making this almost like a soup, to something far more substantial, while still being soft enough to not hurt my mouth.
International Year of Pulses
Last year, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) declared 2016 the Year of Pulses. How cool is that? I know there is a popular notion that those who don’t eat meat live on nut loaf and lentil curry but actually, anyone with an ounce of nous knows that pulses are jam-packed with essential nutrients. Which, given that pulses are seeds, from whence new plants spring, makes sense that each one would be a little powerhouse of goodness.
In addition to pulses being really good for us, they are good for the planet too; a kilo of lentils, for example, takes only 50 litres of water to produce, opposed to a kilo of beef, which needs 13,000 litres. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out the ecological implications of that. Pulses also have a smaller carbon footprint, plus they provide a source of income (as well as nutrition) for some of the world’s most impoverished people.
Forget the current overpriced fashionable (alleged) superfoods like goji berries, hemp hearts, and chia seeds, pulses are what the smart folk have been eating for centuries, and will be eating long after the current rash of trendy foods has passed.
For more information about International Year of Pulses, please visit the FAO website.
My dal fry
Is…
- comforting, filling, and hearty
- mildly spicy
- full of flavour
- full of goodness
- soy-free
- nut-free
- low-fat
- super-delicious!
Dal fry is great with rice, naan, appam, chapati, or paratha, and as a side dish for spicier, more robust Indian dishes. It’s also fantastic on its own.
We absolutely love this – I bet you will too! Enjoy!
