Dicko's Butternut Squash Dal Curry
A vegan-friendly tomato-based curry featuring butternut squash and red lentils with some added heat. Served with coriander — aka cilantro. This dish is great for meal prepping for the next few days. It's healthy too.
Equipment
- Big ol' dutch oven
- Chef's Knife
- Microplane/grater (optional)
- Y-peeler (optional)
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 1-2 hot chillis (thai green, scotch bonnets, habanero, etc.), seeded and diced
- 1 thumb-sized knob ginger, finely grated/minced
- 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 400g can canned tomatoes (~14oz can)
- 5 cups vegetable stock (2.5 stock cubes, chicken stock works well too)
- 1 whole butternut squash, peeled and cut into bite sized cubes (see notes on how to prepare a butternut squash)
- 300 g red lentils (~1 cup)
- 1 ½ tsp cumin
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- ½ tsp extra spicy chilli powder
- 7 cardamom pods broken open and seeds pulverised
- coriander/cilantro, chopped to garnish
Instructions
- After you've mise en place'd everything (that means getting all your spices measured out, veggies cut, your kitchen prepped), heat up the vegetable oil over medium-low heat and when hot, add the onions. Cook for 5 mins until translucent and fragrant, stirring regularly. Throw in the spicy chillis. Cook for 3 mins. Add ginger and garlic and cook for 1 min.
- Add in the tomato paste and all the spices and stir them about until everything is coated in a rich and fragrant paste, about 1 min. Dump in the butternut squash. Stir everything around for 3 mins.
- Add the canned tomatoes and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil. Then back off the heat and let it simmer for 10 mins, stirring occasionally.
- Add the red lentils, stir them about and let them co-mingle with everything else. Simmer for an additional 20 mins, until squash is tender (the lentils shouldn't be mushy).
- Transfer to a bowl and decorate with the chopped coriander.