Coconut dal with kale

Cooked with lemongrass and, if you can get it, pandan leaf (which adds a warm, vanilla flavour) as well as coconut milk, turmeric, curry leaves, garlic and lime, this dal is distinctively light and restorative, and is worlds away from its Indian counterparts like black dal makhani made with cream, or tarka dal made with butter. There is no other dal quite like it.

Credit: Bloomsbury / Alex Lau

• serves

  4

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  25 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

I encourage you to try adding roasted squash or pumpkin or roasted sweet potato. This one is one of the ways my mum would cook it when she was too short on time to make a separate kale curry. She’d simply stir the leaves in very close to the end of cooking so they retained their bright green flavour and nutrients.

Ingredients

For the dal

• 300 g red split lentils or toor lentils
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and halved lengthways
• 1 lemongrass stalk, bruised
• 1½ tsp salt, or to taste
• ½ tsp SL curry powder (see below)
• 4 cm piece of pandan leaf, optional
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 100 ml coconut milk
• 3-4 small handfuls of kale (approx. 200g)
• ½ lime
• 1 tsp chilli flakes, optional

For the temper

• 3 tsp (15 ml) coconut oil or vegetable oil
• 1 small red onion, peeled and finely sliced
• 10 fresh curry leaves
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• ½ tsp cumin seeds

Sri Lankan (SL) curry powder (see Note)

• 30 g coriander seeds
• 15 g cumin seeds
• 15 g fennel seeds
• 15 g black peppercorns
• 1½ tbsp (30 ml) coconut oil or vegetable oil
• 8-10 fresh curry leaves
• 70 g dried Kashmiri or medium hot red chillies
• ¼ tsp ground turmeric

The curry powder can be made in advance and stored. Allow an extra 10 minutes if making as part of this recipe.

Instructions

1. For the curry powder (see Note): Make sure the windows are open and the ventilation is on, because roasting the chillies will kick up an intense smell which carries through the house. In a dry pan over a low-medium heat, roast the coriander, cumin, fennel and black peppercorns for 1–2 minutes, stirring regularly, until they begin to be really fragrant, then pour them into a bowl. Add the oil to the pan, and cook the curry leaves and dried chillies for 2–3 minutes, stirring often. Remove from the heat and when cool, blitz in a spice grinder or mini food processor until fine – you can blitz it in batches if you need to. Stir in the turmeric, and put the whole lot in a jam jar.
2. For the dal, pour the lentils into a saucepan and rinse loosely under the tap then drain well. Cover the lentils with water until they’re submerged by about 5cm. Add the garlic, lemongrass, salt, ½ tsp SL curry powder and pandan leaf, if using. Bring to a boil over a medium-high heat.
3. Skim off any scum and turn the heat down, so the lentils are simmering. Add the turmeric and simmer for 12–15 minutes until the lentils are tender. There’s no need to stir here, you can basically forget about them except to check they’re not bubbling too vigorously.
4. Drain off about eighty per cent of the liquid. You don’t want it to be too wet and soupy because you’re adding coconut milk.
5. Stir in coconut milk and kale and allow to simmer gently for 2–3 minutes until the kale is bright green. Take out a little kale to try; it shouldn’t taste raw but should be soft with a firm bite. Remove from the heat and transfer to your serving bowl.
6. In a small frying pan, make the temper. Heat the oil over a medium-high heat (careful, it will splutter a little). When hot, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally for 3–5 minutes until it starts to turn golden brown. Add the curry leaves, mustard seeds and cumin seeds and cook for a couple of minutes until
7. the curry leaves are bright green. Be careful not to burn the spices!
8. Pour the whole temper, oil included, onto the cooked dal. Squeeze lime over it and sprinkle over the chilli flakes, if using, just before serving.

Note

• It’s worth making your own batch of Sri Lankan curry powder. It takes ten minutes and will keep in the fridge in a jar for three months, but feel free to scale the quantities up or down depending on your needs.

Recipe and image from Rambutan - Recipes from Sri Lanka by Cynthia Shanmugalingam (Bloomsbury, HB$44.99).

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

I encourage you to try adding roasted squash or pumpkin or roasted sweet potato. This one is one of the ways my mum would cook it when she was too short on time to make a separate kale curry. She’d simply stir the leaves in very close to the end of cooking so they retained their bright green flavour and nutrients.