Indian Sweet Potato And Red Lentil Curry

Wills is back!! We are very pleased to have him in our home. On his first night with us I made a dish I remembered that he was very enthusiastic about earlier this ear. He absolutely loved this curry, which I found in a Waitrose booklet I had kept. I have tried a lot of curry recipes and I asked him why he was so keen on this one. He said it tasted a little like “chip-shop curry sauce”. I do realize that in Wills’ mind, that is a true compliment. I know what he means, there us something very familiar about the combination of spices in this recipe, it reminded me so much of the curries we tasted when I was growing up (which were mostly curry sauce from a jar!)

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
6 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 sweet potatoes, cubed (unpeeled)
175g red lentils
1 litre vegetable stock (or use 600ml of stock and a 400ml can of coconut milk)
1 tsp fine sea salt
240g Basmati rice
1 lemon, juice
100g Greek style set yogurt (I think I bought a different yogurt but it was fine!)
2 tbsp chives, finely chopped, to serve

METHOD

Put the oil in a large, high-sided pan over a medium heat.

Add the onion and sauté for five minutes until starting to soften. Tip in the garlic, chilli flakes, garam masala, coriander, cumin and turmeric. Fry for three minutes, stirring now and again, until aromatic.

Add the sweet potatoes, lentils, stock (and coconut milk if using) and sea salt. Bring to the boil and simmer for thirty minutes, stirring frequently, until the sweet potatoes and lentils are cooked through.

Meanwhile, put the rice in a large pan and cover with twice its volume of salted water (about 500ml). Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and leave to simmer gently for twelve minutes. Don’t lift the lid during cooking.

Once the liquid has been absorbed, remove from the heat, leaving the lid on to allow the rice to steam for a further five minutes, then fluff up with a fork.

Stir the lemon juice into the curry and season to taste. Serve with the rice, the yogurt stirred through and the chives scattered over.