Meatless Mondays: Dal with Swiss Chard and Carrots

This dish was inspired by what I already had in the house.  Mix equal parts not wanting to waste food and no desire to leave the house to buy ingredients, and voila!  It turned out surprisingly well, and I imagine the leftovers will taste even better as the flavors have a chance to mingle.  I like to use a lot of spice in my cooking, but you could really make this with just plain old curry powder.  Dal is an Indian lentil stew, so basically, just like any other soup, there are unlimited possible variations on this theme depending on what you like (or what's in your fridge).   


Serves 3 (?)


Ingredients:
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1-2 carrots, cut into 1/2-inch slices
3/4 cup coconut milk (how did I get this number?  It's what I had left from last week's recipe.  Scientific, no?)
3 cups water
1/2 cup lentils (I used green, but yellow is more traditional and red will cook quicker)
1/2 cup Swiss chard, leaves removed from stem and roughly chopped
olive oil for cooking (I actually mixed half olive oil, half sesame oil)

Spices:

1 teaspoon ginger root

5 teaspoons curry powder 

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin
1-2 bay leaves 
salt to taste

1. Brown brown onion and garlic in oil, about 30 seconds.

2. Add carrots and cook until you can just barely stick a fork in them (what, this is cooking in the real world), stirring frequently.

3. Add coconut milk, water, and spices, followed by the lentils and Swiss chard.  I would recommend starting with about 2 cups of water and adding in as needed.  

4. Let simmer until lentils are cooked, for green lentils about 40 minutes. 

5. Serve with yogurt and naan, if you happen to have amazing naan in the freezer which contains ingredients I can pronounce, tastes like it came from a restaurant, and really came from the International Market across the street. 

Lentils: not the most photogenic.