Ravinder Bhogal’s recipes for cooking with lentils | Food
My pantry is stocked with an abundance of lentils: tiny red ones that take moments to cook, which I throw into soups; buttery yellow ones for khichdi; French green ones to add heft to salads; glossy black beluga; and pebbly puy. They’re cheap, nutritional powerhouses that have a low carbon footprint, require little water to grow and improve the health of depleted soil, making them good for our planet, too. What’s not to love? Dal might be the obvious choice when cooking lentils, but there is so much more you can do with them.
Lentil fritters with quick coconut chutney (pictured above)
I first came across these moreish little fritters in Kerala, where they were served as an afternoon snack with a cup of chai. The batter comes together very quickly in a food processor. Look out for frozen grated coconut in Asian supermarkets.
Prep 20 min Soak 2 hr Cook 30 min Makes About 24
200g chana dal (split Bengal gram) 200g skinned peanuts, coarsely chopped 1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped 2 green chillies, finely chopped 1 thumb ginger, peeled and grated 1 tsp toasted fennel seeds, coarsely crushed 1 tsp toasted coriander seeds, coarsely crushed ½ tsp coarsely ground cinnamon 1 large handful coriander, finely chopped A pinch of asafoetida 4 tbsp grated coconut 4 tbsp gram flour Rapeseed oil, for deep-frying
For the quick coconut chutney 250g vegan coconut yoghurt 100g unsweetened desiccated coconut 1 tsp caster sugar Juice of ½ lime
For the tempering 2 tbsp rapeseed oil 1 tbsp urid dal (split skinned black gram) 1 tsp brown mustard seeds Pinch of asafoetida 1 dried red kashmiri chilli, torn in two (optional) 20 curry leaves,roughly chopped
To make the chutney, mix the yoghurt, coconut, sugar, lime juice and some salt and pepper in a bowl. Heat the rapeseed oil in a frying pan and fry the urid dal until pale golden. Scatter in the mustard seeds and, as soon as they pop, sprinkle in the asafoetida, kashmiri chilli, if using, and curry leaves. Pour the contents of the pan over the yoghurt mix, stir to combine, then refrigerate until required.
Soak the chana dal in cold water for two hours, then drain and grind in a food processor to make a coarse paste. Add the peanuts, onion, chillies, ginger, spices, herbs, coconut, gram flour and some salt, then shape tablespoonfuls of the mix into little patties.
Heat the oil in a deep, heavy-based saucepan (no more than half full) to 180C (if you don’t have a digital probe thermometer, it’s at the right temperature when a cube of bread added to the pan turns golden in 30 seconds). Deep-fry until crisp and dark golden, then drain on a plate lined with kitchen paper. Serve hot with the coconut chutney.