Learning to love lentils

News that travels 13,000 miles might be wort listening to...Lentils might just be the prefect food, says Rose Prince in The Daily Telegraph.

Inexpensive and tasty,they are packed with vitamins, protein and complex carbohydrates, which help suppress your appetite (making the ideal for post Christmas diets or sport nutrition). Add rice and you get your day's protein worth without touching a bit of meat.

They are 1% fat and 44% insoluble dietary fibre, which helps cut down blood cholesterol.

They love lentils in Italy and France, and dal on the Asian continent. Pulses are thought to be a factor in those countries' relatively low rates of cardiovascular disease. They are also extremely economical and easy on the wallet.

So why don't we eat more?

They have been thought the cause of flatulence. But given the good we know lentils do, its time to embrace the pulse- and if that means the odd "gust of methan, think of your health and blush with satisfaction". I do!
(Extracted from The Week)

Emerson's organic beer from Dunedin, or V8, and sounds from Studio One classics make the best accompaniments!


Ingredients

3 tbs of butter
1 tsp of cumin seeds
½ tsp of tumeric
1 tsp mustard seeds
½ of salt
1 c split yellow mung beans (or red/yellow lentils, split mung beans, dal) rinsed
6 c water
1 onion
3-4 medium sized fresh, juicy tomatoes
Other veg ( courgettes)
1 c basmati rice


Heat butter,onion, pastes.Add everything but water and mix together until very hot. Then add water and boil on low heat for 40 min. Or longer if needed.Make sure to keep a watchful eye on sauce pan as the water can evaporate fairly quickly and burn the dal. Keep cooking and adding more water until the dal is soft. Chop up tomatoes and add them at the end. When tomatoes are cooked the dal is ready to serve.


Short version
Forget individual spices and use 1 tsp of thai curry paste (red, green, yellow ...) and 1 tsp of indian curry paste ( I use Patak's Korma)to give the lentils spice and flavour.