Sunday, April 06, 2008

Spiced Black Lentils with Cilantro

I was thinking I wanted to make something like Girgir Aloo (lentils with potatoes), but I did not have any aloo, and I didn’t really have any garden variety girgir either. My very last lentils of the year were some exquisite black beluga lentils. Tiny and very pretty and flavorful. Lovely with basmati rice—on our way to a kitnyes-free household

Spiced Black Lentils with Cilantro

Olive oil (be liberal)

2 medium onions, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ teasppons whole cumin seeds

2 cups black lentils

1 cup prepared tomato sauce (or 6 ounces tomato paste)

1 ½ teaspoons turmeric

2 teaspoons paprika

salt

½ bunch cilantro (1/2 cup minced leaves)

Heat oil in a heave saucepan and cook the onions over a moderate flame until soft and translucent, about fifteen minutes. Add the garlic and cumin seeds and cook until fragrant, another five minutes or so. Wash and pick over the lentils, and add them to the pot with the spices. Give a stir and add five cups of water and about two teaspoons of salt, and cook for about an hour or until the lentils are quite tender. Stir in the cilantro and taste for seasonings. Serve with rice, or whatever else you are finishing up before peysekh.

Have a look at Weekend Herb Blogging, back home at Kalyn's Kitchen this week, for other seasonings of the season.

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7 Comments:

Blogger Kalyn Denny said...

I haven't had these black lentils, but I keep reading how lovely they are. This sounds just delicious (of course, the cilantro is a bonus for me!)

2:31 PM  
Blogger the chocolate doctor מרת שאקאלאד said...

Hi Kalyn,
I was thinking you would especially like the cilantro.

3:39 PM  
Blogger Lao Qiao said...

"Girgir aloo"? Hindi" Some other language?

5:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, this looks very delicious. I may try to make it this week. I especially love the cilantro part. ;-)

Paz

7:10 PM  
Blogger Laurie Constantino said...

Any recipe that starts with advice to use olive oil liberally is definitely going to be good. Especially when it also includes beluga lentils, which might be my favorite lentil.

12:55 AM  
Blogger Miriam Segura-Harrison said...

who doesnt love lentils??
I think you should have another tag for kitniyoth recipes...
Josh thinks he's not going to eat kitniyoth this year though. I think I'll tough it out in solidarity.

9:40 AM  
Blogger Miriam Segura-Harrison said...

interesting feature on NPR this morning about rising cost of lentils! oh no!

1:08 PM  

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