Dahl with lemon and scarlet runner beans

Comfort food made special by the addition of fragrant lemon and sweet beans. This is adapted from a recipe in The New Zealand Indian Cookbook (Godwit 1997) written by Linley Scott who ran the Indian Mutiny Cafe in Auckland in the 90s. She recommends using Chana Dahl but that’s hard to find in Takaka so here is a version using red split peas.

INGREDIENTS
  • 1 cup red lentils
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2.5 cm knob garlic, grated
  • 1 tbs ground coriander
  • 1/2 tbs ground cumin
  • 1 fresh chilli, chopped
  • 1 lemon
  • 300g fresh beans, topped and tailed and snapped into 2 cm lengths
  • 1 tomato, chopped
METHOD
  1. Cook the red lentils in a medium saucepan covered with 2.5 cm water. Add the bayleaves.
  2. When the lentils are soft add the garlic, chillis, ginger, coriander and cumin.
  3. Cut the lemon in half lengthwise. Slice one half thinly and add to the dahl.
  4. Bring the dahl back to a simmer then add the beans and tomato. Simmer until the beans are tender
  5. Squeeze the second half of the lemon into the dahl and add the remaining salt to taste.