Curried Lentils

You know the scene: handsome husband comes home to a harried mom with baby on her hip, looking gorgeous in sweats covered in baby spit-up and unwashed hair, complaining that dinner is burnt and the baby needs changing.

Well, that's us. We're still getting the hang of this parenthood thing, and I'm still trying to keep up decent hygiene, but the burnt dinner turned out to be something worth sharing.

Being a new mom and multi-tasker extraordinaire, while baby was napping, I decided to whip up some dinner and take a bath while it was cooking. Having recently finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma (HIGHLY recommended!), I had a renewed energy for eating locally after a long winter of supermarket dulldrums, and pulled out the lentils that my friend Jenny gave me from her dad's farm outside of Beach, ND.

I like lentils, I just never crave lentils, so they frequently get relegated to the back of the cupboard. However, this evening I was making my favorite cauliflower curry with local lentils instead of my usual canned chickpeas. I put the lentils on the stove to simmer in a curried tomato sauce and settled into my bath.

Somehow, a napping baby knows when mom is trying to relax, and whining ensued. Since hubby was at the gym, I dried myself off, threw on some sweats, and baby quickly latched onto my breast. Hungry again.

Then my nose detected that unmistakable odor of something burning. Seeing that I left the burner on a little too high, I opened the lid and peeked into a pot of blackened curried lentils and tomatoes. Very New Orleans-meets-India. Yeah, that's what I was going for.

Hubby came home, and always the optimist, he says it smells like barbecue (the man loves bbq) and it looks salvagable.

That's always a good adjective for dinner: salvagable. Yum.

So we scooped up the good bits, leaving the burnt bits on the bottom. I steamed some cauliflower and we sat down to...a pretty decent dinner. In fact, it was really good! The tomato sauce thickened, spices melded together nicely, even the burnt bits added a little flavor contrast.

Happy accidents, I need to write this down to make it again. And even if I burn dinner again being distracted by baby (and I'm certain I will), he's totally worth it.


Here's my best shot at recreating the recipe without the burnt part. In Indian cooking, this would be considered a type of dal. Serve it up with brown rice and steamed veggies, and you'll live to be 100 eating this stuff...and enjoying it. Feel free to substitute the spices for a tablespoon of garam masala or your preferred curry powder/paste.

Curried Lentils

2 T. canola oil
3 minced garlic cloves

1/2 cup water
1 - 28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes

3/4 cup lentils, washed

1/2 t. ground ginger

1/2 t. salt

A few cracks of black pepper

Small pinch of cayenne

Pinch of nutmeg

1/2 t. cinnamon

1 t. ground coriander

1 t. ground cumin

Add oil to large pot and turn heat to medium. Add garlic. When garlic starts to color, add the tomatoes (juice and all), squishing and chopping them up a bit with your spoon. Add water, lentils, and spices. Stir, cover, turn down heat, and simmer until lentils are softened (approx. 30-40 mins), occasionally stirring and adding water as needed while cooking.