Recipe for Mung Bean and Red Lentil Daal | Comfort Food.

Chilly is the Evening Time.

pop quiz: the lyric above is from what song and artist? clue: the end of the day for Napoleon was a bit ruffled.

Some of you may recall that nearly 30 years ago – yes 30! – we ventured on a two-day ski trip to Auli, a ski resort, of sorts, in the Indian Himalayan Mountains. The resort was fully inclusive, as long as you enjoyed aloo-gobi for every meal.

As #winteriscoming, my comfort food recipe for a dry version of aloo-gobi accompanied by daal and warmed naan bread is unbeatable. My version of daal uses mung beans as I like the bit of bite they retain; baby food is not really my thing.

Ingredients for Mung Bean and Red Lentil Daal

• 125g Mung Beans; washed
• 125g Red Lentils; washed
• 1tsp ground Turmeric
• ½ Onion; finely chopped
• 1 clove Garlic; very finely chopped
• 1tsp Root Ginger; finely grated
• 1 Green Chilli; finely chopped
• 3tblsp chopped Tomatoes; from a tin
• ½tsp Garam Masala
• Handful fresh Coriander; torn
• 2 Red Chillies; roughly chopped
• Oil

How to Make Mung Bean and Red Lentil Daal

1. Place the beans and lentils in a large pan; half fill with boiling water.
2. Return to the boil; remove from heat, drain and rinse away any surface scum produced.
3. Return bean/lentil mix to pan with double volume of boiling water.
4. Add turmeric and seasoning; simmer for about 30mins; until the lentils have broken down. Add more boiling water if the mix become too dry.
5. In a separate non-stick pan, heat a splash of oil, fry the onion for about a minute; add the garlic, fry for another minute.
6. Add the tomato, ginger and green chilli to the onion and continue to fry until quite dry and shiny.
7. Combine this paste with the bean/lentil mix and add Garam Masala.
8. Transfer to serving dish and top with coriander and red chillies.

pop trivia: from the most successful single for British rock band ‘The Kinks’; ‘Waterloo Sunset’. A hit around the world in 1967 in stereo!