Sweet Potato and Spinach Dahl with Chapati Recipe

Ingredients

• Red Lentils – 100g
• Water - 400ml
• Vegetable oil - 20ml
• Coconut oil - 20g
• Diced white onions - 120g
• Garlic - 15g
• Ginger - 10g
• Coriander seeds - 1g
• Cumin seeds - 2g
• Madras curry powder - 3g
• Table salt - 6g
• Fenugreek leaves (fresh preferably but dried will also work, just halve the weight if using dried) – 5g
• Lime juice - 5g
• Yellow mustard seeds - 2g
• Dried curry leaves - 1g
• Frozen spinach leaves - 100g
• Peeled and diced sweet potato - 200g
• Fresh coriander (chopped) – 5g

Method

1. Peel and mince the ginger and thinly slice the garlic.
2. Heat the coconut oil and vegetable oil in a large pan and add the cumin, coriander and mustard seeds, fry till they start to pop. Add the curry leaves and fry for another minute.
3. Add the onions and fry till they are nicely caramelized and nicely softened.
4. Whilst frying the onions, place the sweet potato in a roasting tray and in an oven at 200̊ C.
5. Once the onions are nicely caramelized, add the sliced garlic and fry till the garlic is starting to brown around the edges. Add the madras powder and the ginger to the pan and fry till the raw ginger smell has gone. It should be very aromatic at this point.
6. Add the lentils and water to the pan and stir vigorously to start to break up the lentils.
7. Once the sweet potato has roasted and is softened, add it to the pan with the salt, mix in well and continue to simmer the dahl. Keep stirring the pot to break down the lentils and prevent them from catching on the base of the pan.
8. Add the frozen spinach to the pan and mix in well, continuing to simmer. The sweet potato should be breaking up in the sauce now too, this is supposed to be happening.
9. Once the lentils are completely cooked, spinach fully cooked into the sauce and the sweet potato mostly broken down into the sauce, stir in the fresh coriander, fenugreek and lime juice and remove from the heat.
10. Serve with rice or chapati, or as a side to a curry.