Dahl and potato bake
Dahl, with potato bake and a green garden salad with a nasturtium and avocado dressing.
Although not made from homegrown ingredients, our dahl is so popular with the students, I thought I would post the recipe here. Also, lentils keep very well for a long time, providing it is stored in a air tight container and pests cannot get to it. This recipe can also be made with pigeon pea.
Put 2 cups of red lentils into a pot and add around 8 cups of water (if you use pigeon pea, soak it overnight first and rinse. You may wish to slightly sprout the pigeon pea by sitting the moist pigeon pea in a colander covered with a lid for around 24 hours. Pigeon pea will require a longer cooking period). Add a chopped onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp tumeric, 1 tsp fenugreek (seed or ground) and 1 tsp garam masala. Stir until all lentils are free in the water (none stuck to the bottom). Put on the stove and bring to a boil, stirring regularly. Simmer until the dahl looks semi smooth or smooth (pigeon pea may have a rougher consistency), depending how long you wish to simmer it for. Can be served hot with rice, bread, potato bake or other carb, or cold as a dip. In the picture above the dahl is served with potato bake which can be made as follows:
Potato bake:
Boil 1 – 1 1/2 kg of peeled potatoes until slightly less than firm. Cut into slices and let it cool. Mix up 4 eggs and 300ml cream, add sea salt to taste (I use around 1 tsp) and add a medium clove of garlic and a chopped spring onion. Put the potatoes into a baking dish, then cover it with the egg and cream mixture. Grate some cheese over the top, or add some feta cheese, then bake in a 180 degree C oven. The potato bake is ready when the egg and cream mixture is solid and cheese melted.
©2013 Zaia at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast – Gluten free, vegetarian dahl with potato bake recipe.
Author: Permeco Inc.
Not for profit organisation and charity based in Queensland, Australia, focusing on permaculture education and environmental research. Please note that all articles and recipes written under this label on this website prior to 2025 are written and copyrighted by Willa Sevenstern (previously known as Zaia Kendall).
Have you seen Linda Woodrow’s recipe for pigeon pea dahl? I’m still shelling mine in the hope that I get enough to try it out.
http://witcheskitchen.com.au/pigeon-pea-and-potato-dhal/
I did indeed get enough. And it was great, and as promised even better for lunch the next day. The process gave me a renewed appreciation of how we don’t appreciate grains and seeds enough. Even using the Lis Fekonia method of shelling the pigeon pea (putting them in a cloth bag and whacking the daylights out of them with a rolling pin) it was still a lot of work to get enough for a feed. I reckon I’d get really skinny if I had to do that every day….
Just made this Dahl for lunch with red lentils. Scrumptious! Thank you for sharing.
I’ve lived on Tom & Zaia’s Permaculture farm for 6 months for an internship. This Dahl dish was the most popular & most requested dish BY FAR.
Well worth adding this dish to your culinary repertoire. It tastes AMAZING.!