03 Aug The ultimate winter weekday warmer cauliflower dal

This cauliflower dal will bring the taste of India into your home. Who says we need to travel to faraway countries to experience their delicious local dishes? It is the perfect dish to make you all fuzzy and warm on a cold winter day. You can serve this up as a weekday dinner when you have your friends over. Or batch cook and heat up for a nourishing weekday lunch. You taste buds will love this delicious cauliflower dal with spinach and tomato salad on top. OMG yogis! Let’s get to the recipe.

 

Dal is an Indian Lentil Soup and the perfect weekday dish especially when you crave some hearty and warm. Hello, icy cold winter day dish! You can create as many variations of a dal as you fancy. You can either serve your dal chunky or mix it smoothly with a blender. Spice it up or tone it down – the choice is yours. And guess what, you don’t need to use all the pots and pans you own, just one saucepan will do.

 

This one is packed with flavours already. But using a good curry spice blend will give your taste buds some extra loving. Perhaps stop by your local grocer and pick one up. Fresh seeds are always good to have in your pantry, you can ground them when you need them, so they are ultra-flavoury. However, you can use any spice mix you wish. Just image the flavour explosion in your kitchen and your mouth. BOOM!

 

This recipe will take approx one hour so pop on some tunes or your favourite podcast and get prepping.

 

Cauliflower dal

 

Serves: 6

 

Ingredients

 

For the cauliflower dal:

• 3 tbsp coconut oil/ butter or ghee
• One onion
• Two cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp ground curry spice blend
• 1/2 tbsp mixed mustard seeds, coriander seeds and cardamom seeds (or if you don’t have any of these just add 1/2 tbsp extra ground curry)
• One large chunk fresh ginger
• One cauliflower (approx. 500 g)
• Three potatoes, coarsely diced (200 g)
• 1 cup red lentils
• Two soft dates, pitted and mashed
• 1 litre of water or vegetable stock (if you crave it a bit sweeter use a tin of coconut milk instead)
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• fresh chilli flakes to flavour

 

 

 

 

 

Method:

 

First, let’s make the spinach and the tomato salad before we begin with the dal.

For the spinach, you heat the coconut oil in a skillet. Sauté the mustard seeds and garlic on low/medium heat until golden and fragrant. Then add the spinach and turn off the heat. Stir until wilted. Your garlicky spinach is now ready for serving.

For your tomato salad cut the tomatoes in halves and place them in a bowl. Add olive oil, vinegar salt and pepper and toss to combine.

 

Let’s continue with the cauliflower dal:

Heat coconut oil, onion and garlic in a large saucepan on low/ medium heat. Then add the curry. If you have fresh spices, grind the extra spices in a mortar and add those as well. Suppose you don’t have these spices just add more curry to it. Stir until it smells fragrant, but keep an eye on it, so that the spices don’t burn. If it feels too dry, add a spoonful of water. Add as much as you need.

Break the cauliflower into florets and chop the stem finely. Then start peeling the potatoes and dice them into 1 cm pieces. Add the cauliflower and the potatoes slices to the saucepan along with the lentils and dates. Stir and sauté for about a minute before adding water or veggie stock. Again if you want the dal sweeter or creamier, add the coconut milk instead of the water/ stock.

Let it simmer for 30 minutes or so. It’s ready when the lentils start to dissolve, and the cauliflower florets are tender. Stir a few times. Then add the apple cider vinegar and salt to taste.

Give the soup 2-3 pulses with a hand blender – more if you want a smoother dal.

 

Your dal is now ready to be served in bowls with a dollop of your choice of yogurt. Top with the spinach and tomato salad for an extra fresh zing of flavour.

 

 

 

Enjoy your new favourite everyday winter warmer, yogis!

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe and image by Green Kitchen Stories.