Ingredients :
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled ginger
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups dried red lentils (10 oz)
1 (13- to 14-oz) can unsweetened coconut milk
1 lb zucchini (2 medium), cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro sprigs
Accompaniment: white rice
Firstly, peel the onion.
Chop the onion into small sized pieces as shown in the image above.
Pour 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil into the pot.
Once the oil starts to simmer, pour the onions in.
Stir for roughly 5 minutes until the onions are slightly golden.
Add 2 garlic cloves and a table spoon of peeled ginger.
Make sure to the peel the garlic cloves before dicing them.
Dice the garlic and ginger into small sized pieces as shown in the image above.
Pour in the garlic and ginger from your chopping board.
Stir continuously for 1 minute.
Prepare coriander, cumin, turmeric and salt from you cupboard. I recommend using pink Malayan salt.
Measure ; 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1 teaspoon of turmeric, 1/2 a teaspoon of coriander and 1 teaspoon of salt.
Pour the seasoning into the pot, you can add Chile if you wish to add spice to your dish. Continue stirring for 1 minute.
Measure 1.5 cups of dried red lentils.
Then pour into pot.
Add 2 cups of water.
Then pour 1 cup of coconut milk. You can add more or less depending on your desired consistency.
Cover pot with lid.
Simmer for 5 minutes.
Stir occasionally during the 5 minutes.
Dice Zucchini into small sized pieces as shown in the image above.
Pour the Zucchini into the the pot.
Simmer and cover, stirring occasionally until the lentils and Zucchinis are tender (15 min).
Pour 1 cup of rice per person.
Then for every cup of rice, add 1.5 cups of water. For example, I used two cups of rice so I would add 3 cups of water.
Turn the heat to full.
Once the rice starts to boil, turn the heat down to allow the rice to simmer.
After roughly 15 minutes of waiting for the lentils, you can now turn the heat off if you are satisfied with the texture. For example, if you do not like the lentils to be too soft, remove the lentils from the heat a bit earlier.
Present the rice and lentils on the plate, surrounding it with vegetables.
To achieve the look shown in the image above. Take a bowl and put a cup in the middle, then stuff the rice around then cup. Put the plate onto of the bowl then flip everything quickly over a bin incase any rice spills. Then, pour the lentils into the whole your created.
Hopefully you enjoyed this recipe. If you decide to try it, out let me know in the comments if you enjoyed it because I definitely did :)
