Mrs Tinks: Tomato Dahl

A few weeks ago I recommended the Cooks and Kids recipe book, as I had given it to Eliza to help her learn some new cooking techniques! At the weekend we tried this recipe and it was delicious. We had it with a Prawn and Mango Curry (recipe to follow), but you could have it as a main meal. I'm hoping to add some more veggie recipes to the blog and I think this one is a good start. The recipe in the book has a few extra spices, but I toned it down slightly.

Ingredients
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 Large Onion, finely chopped
3 Garlic Cloves, chopped
1 Carrot, diced
1 inch Piece Ginger, finely grated
2 tsp Ground Turmeric
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Mild Chilli Powder
1 tsp Garam Masala
225g / 8 oz Split Red Lentils
400 ml Water
400 ml Coconut Milk
5 Tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (you could use a 400g tin chopped tomatoes, drained, if you don't have the time to do this)
Juice of 1 Lime
4 tbsp Chopped Fresh Coriander
Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper
25g Flaked Almonds, toasted, to serve (both the boys are allergic to nuts so we took these out!)

To skin the tomatoes, cut a cross in the bottom of each one, put them in a bowl and cover them with boiling water. Leave for a about 5 minutes until the skin begins to loosen. Remove from the bowl, peel of the skin, chop and squeeze out the seeds.

Method
Heat the oil in a large heavy-based saucepan. Sauté the onion for 5 minutes until softened, stirring occasionally.

Add the garlic, carrot, and ginger. Cook for 5 minutes until the carrot starts to soften.
Stir in the turmeric, cumin, chilli powder and garam masala and cook for 1 minute, stirring to prevent the spices burning.

Add the lentils, water, coconut milk and tomatoes and season.

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the lentils sticking.