Chili Dhal

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

By The Food in My Beard

September 11, 2017

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

can (28 oz) diced tomato

1/2

cup lentils

can black beans

tablespoon honey

teaspoon turmeric

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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. 1 minute later, add the can of tomatoes. Add the spices.
4

Rinse the lentils and add them. Add the black beans, honey, and turmeric.
5

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

No nutrition information available for 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!