Dal to Die for

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Mum asking me to send her some Indian recipes, for she and a friend were planning to cook some familiar (hopefully) dishes for the birthday celebration they had planned for their parish priest, who hails from southwestern India. Yes, Gentle Reader, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City practices reverse outsourcing (insourcing?) to meet its parish priest needs. The parish in which I grew up has had priests from, if memory serves, Somalia, Taiwan, Vietnam and now India because the archdiocese just doesn't have enough local boys.

Anywho, I first sent Mum here to the blog because, duh, it's a wellspring of Indian recipes I've tried and futzed with and reviewed. I also offered to try to track down some recipes from the priest's region, so into my library of Indian cookbooks I dove. While I did send Mum a half-dozen additional recipes, I identified--well, more like rediscovered--some recipes I couldn't wait to try. I diligently bookmarked them (again) but instead of putting the books back on the shelf, I kept them on the table near the place where I eat breakfast and supper and where my laptop resides when I'm not in the study/Star Wars Rooom working for money.

As you may recall, Gentle Reader, Tuesday nights here at Chez Boeckman-Walker are Pizza Nights. I don't partake fully in Pizza Night, although of late I've been preparing the boys' meal in addition to my own. "My own" often consists of a bowl or two of some veggie-heavy or lentil-heavy concoction I've put together for the very purpose of being available to me on Tuesdays. However, this Tuesday I found myself bereft of leftover chickpea stews, lentil stews or other filling preparations, so I figured, Hey, why not try out one of those recipes I found!

Revisiting Easy Indian Cooking
Thanks to a clearance sale of cookbooks at the local Surly Table, I acquired Suneeta Vaswani's Easy Indian Cooking just about a year ago. Now I thought I'd posted about making the Sindhi chicken curry recipe included in the book, but I can't seem to find the post (and I've discovered that the new layout of the blog lacks a search box, which is a total pain in the arse that I must address soon). That dish was a bit of a disappointment in the flavor department, and I think it deterred me from experimenting further from this particular collection.

As I was browsing recipes for lentil soups and stews, I found one in Vaswani's book that I knew I could make easily and for which I had most of the needed ingredients. And after a busy Tuesday of working and working out, I looked forward to preparing a feast of lentils.

Toor Dal Soup With Vegetables1 C toor dal (yellow lentils)
1 t turmeric
1 C chopped tomato
1 C cubed potato
1 C sliced carrots, 1/4" thick
8 green beans, cut into 1" pieces
1/4 t salt, or to taste
2 T vegetable oil
1 t cumin seeds
1 T chopped garlic
1/2 C chopped onion
1 1/2 C steamed rice
1/3 C cilantro, chopped
Lemon wedges

1. Clean and pick through the dal for any small stones and grit, then rinse several times in cold water until the water is fairly clear.
   
2. Drain and transfer the dal to a large saucepan, add 3 C of water then let the dal soak 10 min.
   
3. Bring the dal to a boil, uncovered, over medium heat, skimming the froth off the surface of the water.
   
4. Cook the dal, partially covered, until they are soft and mushy, about 30 min.
   
5. Puree the dal using a blender, immersion blender or whisk until they have a batter-like consistency.
   
6. Return the dal to the pan, stir in 3 C of water and the turmeric.
   
7. Add the tomato, potato, carrot and green bean pieces, cayenne pepper and salt.
   
8. Cover and bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.
   
9. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer 12-15 min.
   
10. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat, add the cumin seeds then saute until the cumin is fragrant and a shade darker, about 30 sec.
    
11. Add the garlic, saute for 1 min., add the onion and cook until the onion is golden, about 10 min.
    
12. Pour the cumin-garlic-onion mixture into the dal and veggies mixture then let simmer, covered, until the veggies are tender, about 5 min.
    
13. Place 2-3 T of rice in each bowl, then top with soup. Garnish with cilantro and serve with lemon wedges on the side.

Yield: 8

Nutritional Info
Vaswani unfortunately did not include nutritional data for her recipes in Easy Indian Cooking. She does note, however, that the soup is "packed with vitamins," and the dal makes it "high in protein and fiber...."

The Faudie's Futzings
As I mentioned earlier, I had most of the necessary ingredients, as you will read below, Gentle Reader. Given my previous experience with toor dal and my particular hankerings of late, I did futz with the recipe some.

• I had a can of diced tomatoes in the pantry, so I used that instead of buying a fresh tomato and chopping it up. I used the whole can, diced tomatoes, juice and all, because despite my attempts to be watchful, most of the water boiled off the dal during those first 30 minutes and the additional 3 cups added in step 6 didn't seem like enough liquid to make a respectable soup.
  
• I used two smallish red potatoes, keeping the skin on. I'm sure I had more than a cup, but I didn't take the time to measure.
  
• Nor did I take the time to measure how many carrot slices I added. I had two carrots of typical length and a shorter one, and I didn't want to leave one of them lonely in the crisper.
  
• Nor did I take the time to measure how much chopped onion I threw in. I have some small yellow onions in the pantry in my handy onion bag, so I grabbed the smallest one, chopped it up completely and used that. I like onion. So sue me.
  
• In lieu of green beans (I didn't want to buy either a can of them or fresh ones), I chopped up a large green bell pepper and threw it into the pot about 10 minutes into its 12-to-15-minute simmering spell. That way the peppers would still be somewhat crisp and tender, not rubbery and mushy.
  
• I didn't use nearly 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil for sauteing the cumin, garlic and onions. Maybe three-fourths of a tablespoon.
  
• I completely forgot the salt. I honestly did. By the time I was at the point to add it, I was also gearing up to make the boys' pizza, so my dal soup didn't have my full attention. My bad. But I didn't find the flavors got muddled together due to its absence.
  
• The cilantro plant on the yoga patio is anemic and probably dying. I also didn't have a great interest in chopping cilantro. No cilantro for me. Maybe if the plant recovers--or I break down and buy a clump at HEB and still have some on hand when I have this dish again.
  
• No lemons. Sorry, I don't get the point.

I made a cup of basmati rice, even though I'm not terribly keen on eating a lot of rice with a dish. Plus the finished soup looked an awful lot like the sambar I love at Madras Pavilion, and I don't sully that with rice of any kind. Unfortunately, my first few bites had more flavor of basmati than of soup, but I think that's because I hadn't adequately mixed the two together in the bowl.

The soup and rice before mixing--and before I added more juice from the pot.

Once I remedied that, I found the soup to be wonderfully flavorful, although I probably will add more cayenne or throw in some sambar powder the next time I make this soup.

That said, if you find yourself hankering for a hearty but not thick-as-gruel vegetable dish that's pretty healthful, I highly recommend this recipe. It's easy to make and well worth the effort.