Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Kuala Lumpur for a couple of days for a quick shoot. I wish I could have stayed longer just to eat some more Malaysian food! I landed in the brand new terminal (KLIA2) which, by the way, is AWESOME. Squeaky clean and spacious, sprawling with shops and restaurants. I could have wondered around for hours. To my delight, I found a juice bar as well as an organic veggie restaurant – where I devoured the best laksa I’ve ever eaten! There was also a great little supermarket filled with all sorts of exotic herbs and spices. I brought a couple back to experiment with, which will hopefully make it on to some recipes soon! I also brought back some lentils, which for some reason, seem to be crazy expensive in Manila. Perhaps I’m not looking in the right places!
Like most of my recipes, this soup doesn’t use any fancy ingredients. Just lentils, some fresh veggies and a few spices. For something so simple, it is bursting with flavour and textures. The chilli, ginger, turmeric and cumin gives the broth so much warmth. If you cook the spinach just enough, you still get an awesome crunchiness from the greens. Of course, the lentils are super creamy and soak up all the wonderful flavours of the other ingredients! Hope you enjoy it.
Mari
- ½ cup of lentils
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 red onion
- 1 cup tightly packed spinach
- 2 small chillies
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2cm piece of ginger
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp cumin
- coconut oil
- sea salt & white pepper to taste
- Add 1 cup of water to a pan with a pinch of salt & pepper. Bring to a boil, add the lentils, and simmer until most of the water is absorbed.
- Grate the ginger and chop the onion, garlic & 1 chilli.
- In another pan, heat up a dash of coconut oil. Sauté the above with the turmeric & cumin for 5 minutes.
- Finely chop the tomatoes and add to the pan. Cook for another 5-10 minutes until the tomato begins to break down.
- Roughly chop the spinach and add to the rest of the vegetables.
- Stir through the cooked lentils and simmer for a few minutes before serving. Add salt and pepper to taste.
If you are sensitive to chilli make sure you take the seeds out!
Hi! I could have sworn I’ve visited your blog before but after browsing through a few
of the articles I realized it’s new to me.
Anyhow, I’m certainly happy I stumbled upon it and I’ll be
bookmarking it and checking back frequently!
thanks!
This is so much like the dal we serve along side Indian meals, the main difference is that I would use a pressure cooker for boiling the lentils (much faster!) along with the turmeric. I love the colors and sound of this dish!
Thank you! I love dal too 🙂 I don’t have a pressure cooker in my little flat but I hope to get one when I move to a larger space!
Im surprise to see fellow filipina cooking indian dish. I loved this dish and I learned cooking from my husband which is indian decent. You can also spice it up adding garam masala powder. Soaking lentils will help to speed up cooking process or Pressure cooker is a big help with 4-5 whistles. Keep it up and I just discover your blog and learning a lot new recipes which are very very healthy.
Awe! I am a big lover of spice. What else do I need to taste this recipe? Looks delicious and colorful 🙂