Ari's Planet

This is a recipe I adapted from a simple recipe for dhal, or lentils, made Indian style. I simplified and reduced the quantities to make cooking simpler while traveling and when lacking refrigeration to store left overs. I've also modified it by throwing pretty much anything and everything in the pot.

Lentils and vegetables:
Lentils, 1 cup. You can use red lentils or brown lentils, but brown lentils need more water.
Two medium potatoes. Rinse and cut into cubes. I don't bother peeling, which saves time and retains nutrients.
Two onions, cut into pieces. I love onions in this stew. Yum.
Two fresh tomatoes, chopped, or a can of chopped tomatoes.
Two carrots, cut up. Again, I rinse and throw in without peeling, just like the potatoes.
Two courgettes, cut up just like the carrots. Please do not peel these!
About 4 large fresh cloves of garlic, chopped. Garlic is great.
(The original recipe calls for ginger, but I ended up skipping this.)

Meat (optional):
Lamb cubes go great with this stew.

Spices:
Cumin 1 tsp.
Turmeric 1 tsp.
Coriander 1 tsp.
Garam masala 1 tsp.
Chili powder ~1/3 tsp.
Salt to taste.
(The spice quantities are not a science, it's just that 1 tsp is very easy to measure.)

Add 3-4 cups water. If using red lentils use about 3 cups water, or 4 cups for brown lentils. You can also add just 2 cups, then watch the pot and add water as necessary, but this is far too tedious for me.

Add 6 tablespoons light olive oil. Yes, I love oil in food! it gives the food a much nicer texture. You can add more or less.

Stir it all up, bring to a boil, then simmer on very low heat for at least 1 hour and preferably 1.5 hours. Stir every 15 minutes and add water if necessary. After the first hour the ingredients will have a much higher tendency to start sticking to the bottom of the pot, so be sure to stir and reduce the flame if necessary.

About 1/2 hour before you want to eat put 1 cup brown rice with 2 cups water and a bit of oil, bring to a boil, then simmer for 25-30 minutes until the water is absorbed. Let the rice stand another 10 minutes, fluff up, then serve.

The above recipe is good for 3-4 meals for me. Use 1/2 cup of lentils and less vegetables if you intend to eat it all in one dinner--if it's cold out and you're camping you can even reheat what's left for breakfast. It's hard to cook much less than 1/2 cup of lentils. When camping, this recipe works best if you have two burners so you can cook the rice in parallel with the stew. The original recipe said to throw a good dollop of butter at the end to give the stew a nice texture and flavor.