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Chili Dhal

2 Ratings

2 Comments

Prep 30 min
Total 45 min
Servings 10

This classic Indian side dish is spiced up with southwestern chili flavors. ...MORE+ LESS-

The Food in My Beard

October 30, 2014

Ingredients

tablespoon mustard seed

tablespoon cumin seed

tablespoon coriander seed

teaspoon pepper

teaspoon fenugreek

1/2

inch cinnamon

cloves

tablespoon ancho chile powder

tablespoon chipotle chile powder

onion

bell pepper

cloves garlic

(28 oz) can diced tomato

1/2

cup lentils

can black beans

tablespoon honey

teaspoon turmeric

Steps

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1

Take the first 7 ingredients and heat them in a pan until fragrant. Blend in a spice grinder. Add the next 2 ingredients, Ancho and Chipotle powders.
2

Dice the onion, pepper and garlic, and run a knife through the black beans to cut them up a bit.
3

Saute the onions and peppers in some oil. After about 8 minutes, just before they start to brown, add the garlic.
4

1 minute later, add the can of tomatoes.
5

Add the spices.
6

Rinse the lentils and add them.
7

Add the black beans, honey, and turmeric
8

Let simmer for about 15 minutes. Add water if you need to loosen it up.

Nutrition Information

No nutrition information available for this recipe

More About This Recipe

When I cook "fusion" dishes, I don't try and force things to go together that don't belong together.

I think that when chefs start doing that, people start to hate the whole idea of fusion. But fusion can be a beautiful thing, and many dishes from one culture are very similar to dishes from another. Culinary cousins, if you will.

Enter the Indian dish Dhal. Dhal is a veggie and lentil side that is spooned over rice. Last time I ate Dhal, I thought to myself, This sort of reminds me of chili! So I cooked a Dhal recipe, slightly altering some ingredients and spices to make it taste like chili, and the results were fantastic!
The detailed recipe for Chili Dahl can be seen here, but there are some photos of the process below. And, if you want a great pairing with this Chili Dhal, try this Indian-Spiced BBQ sauce recipe on chicken and serve it with the chili dhal and rice. Super tasty!
First you need to make a garam masala spice blend. The words garam masala literally translate to "hot mixture," but the hot doesn't necessarily mean burn your mouth, it means spice. All garam masalas are different -- today I made a cumin-coriander-mustard heavy mix, and used less clove and fenugreek than normal. This would help the dhal taste more like chili.
Toast the spices in a dry frying pan, then grind them in a spice grinder.
I added some chile to the mix. This is when "hot mixture" actually got hot! If you want this to be less spicy, you can add Mexican chili powder or another type instead of the chipotle.
Lentils are the main ingredient of a dhal, but I used black beans too.
Starting with some onion and pepper in the pot, followed by garlic.

Lentils go in next.

Then the spice. Yum! Tomatoes and beans into the pot.
Some turmeric and honey finish it off. Simmer this for about 20 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Add some water if you need to loosen it up.
Serve with Basmati Rice.

Dan Whalen is a blogger at The Food in my Beard; check Dan's Tablespoon profile often to try his recipes with creative international spins!