LENTIL CURRY

My husband has negative memories of curry and ginger due to a childhood food-mishap but I was able to convince him to try these Indian lentils. He actually thought they were good. I loved them! He preferred his with rice, I had mine with naan flatbread. It was my first time trying asafoetida powder which has been used in Indian cuisine for ages. I bought the asafoetida powder at my local Indian grocery store but you can also buy it online.

You can find the recipe at “Harshdeep Swami”: Lentil Curry. All of his recipes are oil-free!

What I did differently for the tomato paste:

-Used 5 plum tomatoes, quartered

-My pieces of ginger weighed 0.4 oz

-Used 7 cloves of garlic

-My green chilis were large so I used 1 and 1/2

-Placed all the tomato paste ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth

What I did differently for the lentils:

-I used just organic red lentils. Cooked 1 cup lentils in 3 cups water in the Instant Pot set for 1 minute then manually released the pressure when done. They look yellow when cooked.

My instructions:

-Prepare tomato paste

-Prepare lentils

-In wok on medium high heat add cumin seeds and cook briefly until they start to change color and are fragrant. Add tomato paste and stir. After a minute add the other remaining spices. Cook for 10-12 minutes until you get a lot of the water out so it becomes thick. Add lentils and boil about 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro and stir.