This is my good mate Jane “Grylltown” Grylls’ dal recipe and she has one of the best palates in the biz, as you’ll taste when you make this. It’s also one of the best-loved, most-cooked recipes from my big cookbook, so get ready to add it to your winter-warmer repertoire.
Sweet potato – known to our New Zealand cousins as kumara – is one of the stars of this dish. I usually don’t bother peeling sweet potatoes because the skin is full of nutrients and helps them hold their shape.
If you’re wondering whether the colour of the sweet potato makes a difference to flavour, the answer is yes! Purple sweet potatoes are higher in starch and tend to make for sweeter chips when you’re roasting, while also keeping their shape well. The small red sweet potatoes are delicious roasted whole, with the skin on, turning into a surprise mash on the inside.
Sweet potatoes are among those “Tough Mudder” tubers that stand the test of time. As with any root veg, when shopping, seek strong tubers that are in no way bendy – which would indicate they’ve been sitting around for longer than you care to know. Store them in a cool, dark place, away from direct sunlight and they should keep for about a month.
In this dal recipe, you can add extra veg for more colour and texture, too; anything in the bottom of the crisper will get a new lease on life bathed in this rich, coconuty curry.
In the colder months, Jane likes to cook the dal at 170C for an hour or two in the oven to keep her house in country Victoria warm, while eliminating the need for stirring – a “double bonus!”, she says.
You could also give the meal a second lease of life by using a stick blender to blitz the leftover dal into a spiced lentil and veg soup.
Darl’s dal recipe, AKA pumpkin and sweet potato dal
Serves 4–6
1 tbsp olive oil
50g butter
1 brown onion, diced
2 large garlic cloves, grated
1.5cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
1 bunch coriander stems, rinsed well, then finely chopped (reserve the leaves for serving)
300g pumpkin, cubed
200g sweet potato, chopped into 1cm discs or chunks
1 tbsp ground turmeric (or about 2 tbsp fresh and grated, if available)
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp curry powder
A pinch of chilli powder
2 curry leaf branches (about 20 curry leaves)
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
400ml tin coconut milk
400g tin tomatoes (optional)
200g split red lentils (1 cup), rinsed
500ml vegetable stock (2 cups)
50g palm sugar, grated
Juice of ½ lemon
100g baby spinach leaves
1 cup frozen or fresh peas
Plain yoghurt, sliced red chillies and lemon wedges, to serve
Heat the olive oil and butter in a large flameproof casserole dish. Add the onion and saute over medium-to-low heat with the lid on for about eight-to-10 minutes, until the onion turns translucent. Then add the garlic, ginger and coriander stems and stir well.
Add the pumpkin, sweet potato, spices, curry leaves, cinnamon and bay leaves. Stir for another few minutes.
Deglaze the pan with the coconut milk (and tomatoes, if using), thoroughly scraping the bottom of the pan. Stir in the lentils, stock, palm sugar and one cup (250ml) water. Bring to the boil, giving everything a stir every now and then, and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until the lentils have broken down and become creamy rather than chalky, and the sweet potato is fork-tender.
Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Stir in the lemon juice, then check the flavour balance, adding salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Before serving, add the spinach and peas and cook for two minutes, until the peas are just cooked and the spinach has wilted.
Serve topped with a dollop of yoghurt, sliced chilli and the reserved coriander leaves, with lemon wedges. This dal freezes really well, so portion any leftovers into packs for the freezer.
This is an edited extract from In Praise of Veg by Alice Zaslavsky, photography by Ben Dearnley, published by Murdoch Books in Australia (A$59.99) and the UK (£25), and in the US (US$35) and Canada (C$45) where it is published by Appetite by Random House
