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Chili Dhal

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The Food in My Beard
Updated Sep 11, 2017
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This classic Indian side dish is spiced up with southwestern chili flavors.

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! 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. Serve with Basmati Rice and enjoy!

Chili Dhal

  • Prep Time 30 min
  • Total 45 min
  • Servings 10
  • Ingredients 17
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Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon mustard seed
  • 1 tablespoon cumin seed
  • 1 tablespoon coriander seed
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 teaspoon fenugreek
  • 1/2 inch cinnamon
  • 6 cloves
  • 1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
  • 1 tablespoon chipotle chile powder
  • 1 onion
  • 1 bell pepper
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 can (28 oz) diced tomato
  • 1/2 cup lentils
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric

Instructions

  • Step 
    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.
  • Step 
    2
    Dice the onion, pepper and garlic, and run a knife through the black beans to cut them up a bit.
  • Step 
    3
    Saute the onions and peppers in some oil. After about 8 minutes, just before they start to brown, add the garlic. 1 minute later, add the can of tomatoes. Add the spices.
  • Step 
    4
    Rinse the lentils and add them. Add the black beans, honey, and turmeric.
  • Step 
    5
    Let simmer for about 15 minutes. Add water if you need to loosen it up.

Nutrition

No nutrition information available for this recipe
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