I love Indian food, and this chickpea dhansak recipe is a perfectly healthy dish. Dhansak has elements of Persian and Gujurati cuisines and traditionally encompasses a meat such as mutton or goat cooked with lentils, vegetables and rice. This dhansak recipe uses the same principle but with none of the meat of course, making this dish vegetarian and vegan.
The sauce of the dhansak is made with red lentils that dissolve and become creamy and the blend of spices makes it a lovely comforting dish, with star anise being central to the sauce, cumin seed, garam masala, ground coriander and coriander leaf, turmeric, paprika and a squeeze of lemon to lift up the flavours. The result is a hearty, warm and delicious dish.
Chickpea Dhansak Recipe
Yield:
4
Servings
Difficulty:
Easy
Cooking time:
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Ingredients
- 4 tbsp sunflower oil
- 400 g chickpeas, cooked and drained
- 100 g red split lentils, dry
- 200 g chopped tomato or passata
- 400 ml water from a recently boiled kettle
- 1 medium onion
- 1 mild green chilli
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 inch piece of ginger
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 clove star anise
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp coriander leaves
- juice of half a lemon
- salt to taste
- 4 tbsp sunflower oil
- 14 oz chickpeas, cooked and drained
- 3½ oz red split lentils, dry
- 7 oz chopped tomato or passata
- 1¾ cups of water from a recently boiled kettle
- 1 medium onion
- 1 mild green chilli
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 inch piece of ginger
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 clove star anise
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp coriander leaves
- juice of half a lemon
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a saucepan and when the oil is moderately hot add the cumin seeds and star anise.
- When the cumin is sizzling add the minced onion and green chilli and sweat until soft.
- Mince or grate the garlic and ginger and sauté for a few minutes.
- Add the tomatoes paprika, turmeric, ground coriander and garam masala.
- Add in the lentils and water and stir well. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes stirring from time to time
- Drain the chick peas and add them into the sauce. Simmer for another 10 minutes stirring every few minutes
- Chop some coriander leaves and add them in together with the lemon juice
- Stir well and leave to simmer gently until the lentils have almost disappeared into the sauce.
- Serve with rice.
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4.80 from 5 reviews
chickpeas / Indian Cuisine / lentils / main dish / vegan
