Cozy Coconut Dal

• servings: 4 servings
• active time: 10 minutes
• total time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (300g) red lentils, soaked overnight

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp tomato paste

4 garlic cloves, finely minced or grated

1 medium fresno pepper, finely minced

2 tsp coconut sugar or brown sugar

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp ground turmeric

1 (13.5 oz) can full-fat coconut milk

1/4 cup water

Diamond Crystal kosher salt

Minced cilantro and lemon for serving

Directions

Soak the lentils overnight, submerged in a bowl of water. Before cooking, rinse thoroughly until the water runs clear and drain.

Mise en place

Prep the fresno peppers – try to get them as finely minced as possible. And gather the remaining ingredients (spices, coconut milk, and water). Mise en place is your best friend with a dish like this where the frying process happens fairly quickly.

Saute the aromatics and spices

To a large deep pan or pot (for reference, I used a 3.5 QT Le Creuset braiser), drizzle in the olive oil, along with the tomato paste, garlic, and minced fresno pepper. Saute over medium heat until the garlic begins to brown and stick to the bottom of the pot. Sprinkle in the spices, and let bloom for 15 seconds, no more. Then add in the lentils, coconut milk, and water, along with a generous amount of kosher salt (~2 tsp). Stir well.

Cook the dal

Lower the heat to medium-low, cover the pan, and let the lentils simmer and cook down for about 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The dal is done once all the liquid has been absorbed and the lentils have broken down – the dal will look similar to oatmeal.

Serve

Sprinkle the dal with minced cilantro. I love pairing this dal with keema and either white rice or roti. Other ways to serve this dal is to scoop it up with heavily buttered sourdough bread, or garlic naan.