Tomato Curry Lentil Stew

Every week I try to make a soup. It's a nice quick lunch when we're busy, it's something Kevin can take to work if we don't have leftovers from the night before, and they're filling and generally inexpensive. I actually made this recipe when I made the masoor dal, in case it wasn't filling enough. No one else ate it but me that night, and in the days since I can say that this is definitely a make ahead dish. It has gotten MUCH better while hanging out in my fridge!

Here is the recipe.

1-1/2 cups dry lentils
3 cups water
15 ounces stewed tomatoes
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons chopped onion
6 stalks celery, chopped, with leaves
3/4 teaspoon curry powder
9 cloves garlic, minced
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste

Combine lentils and water, bring to a boil.
Lower heat to simmer, add tomatoes, onion, and celery. Cover and let simmer 45 minutes. Check every 15 minutes to stir, and add water if necessary. Add spices last 15 minutes to taste. Taste and re-spice if necessary before serving.

I like allrecipes.com because they have the option of changing the number of servings and they give you an altered recipe. It really takes the guess work out of it, which is fantastic. I made this recipe with 6 servings, so that I could buy a 15 oz can of stewed tomatoes (I hate recipes that only call for 1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste when the smallest can you can buy is 4 or 6 ounces!) Anyway, I probably wouldn't use stewed tomatoes again, they're basically whole tomatoes that have been stewed, so you have some really big unwieldy blobs of tomato hanging out in your soup. I'm not a fan of needing to cut your soup (unless it's matzo ball soup!) so I'd probably substitute a can of diced tomatoes. I added about a cup of water at the 15 and 30 minute mark as well.



This is a tasty soup, and with the few changes I've mentioned, I think it's a real winner for a make ahead soup. The recipe was really cheap to make, and for those on WIC, this is a great way to use the dried beans you get (and the beauty of lentils are that they don't need to be soaked overnight!)

Masoor Dal

A friend of mine was telling me that incorporating a vegetarian meal at least once a week into her menu has helped cut her grocery costs. I think that's awesome, and I'd heard of "Meatless Monday" in the past. I love Indian food, and it's hard to get the family on board when we're looking for somewhere to go out to eat (they NEVER want to go!) so I decided to take matters into my own hands and make some at home. My husband likes lentil soup, so I figured this would be a fantastic recipe to try because there's nothing in it that he doesn't like (except for ginger, but tumeric is a heavy spice, so I figured it would blend in.)

I went to Sprouts and got the tumeric and cumin seeds by the ounce. I think it cost me like 30 cents for the spices, and I had much more than I needed.

Here is the recipe.

1 cup red lentils
1 slice ginger, 1 inch piece, peeled
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
4 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 teaspoons dried minced onion
1 teaspoon cumin seeds

Rinse lentils thoroughly and place in a medium saucepan along with ginger, turmeric, salt and cayenne pepper. Cover with about 1 inch of water and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam that forms on top of the lentils. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until beans are tender and soupy.

Meanwhile, in a microwave safe dish combine oil, dried onion and cumin seeds. Microwave on high for 45 seconds to 1 minute; be sure to brown, but not burn, onions. Stir into lentil mixture.


Again, I did a variation on the recipe. Looking at the reviews, someone said it's better to use fresh onion (I wasn't about to buy dried onion just for this, even though I could get it by the ounce) and I'd NEVER heard of anything browning properly in the microwave, so I browned the onion and garlic in the oil on the stove while the lentils were doing their thing. The recipe had great flavor and only my 2 year old refused to eat it (she just wanted to eat rice.) My 5 year old LOVED it, and my husband liked it, so I call it a win. The lentils can be bought by the ounce as well, and I think it was only $2 for the lentils I needed for the recipe (note, the recipe yields only 4 small servings, but can be altered on the page, they do all the work for you, yay! I highly recommend making more, it was very tasty.)



Obviously I served it over rice. It doesn't look like much, but it packs a lot of flavor. The great thing about lentils is that they're one of the highest vegetarian forms of iron, and when paired with rice, they make a complete protein dish. In short, this dish is tasty, easy on the wallet, AND good for you!