As the nights get cooler, we’re loving warming and nourishing curries! This tasty dhal curry recipe comes from nutritionist, yoga teacher and bestselling author Lola Berry.
Her tenth book, The Yoga Body, is out now: it’s your ultimate guide to eating well, building strength and finding quiet time in your busy day. It contains great yoga poses and sequences, a seven-day cleanse and 60 delicious wholefood recipes.
One of our favourite recipes in the book is the Mung Bean Dhal – it’s nourishing, filling and full of flavour! The humble mung bean is a great pantry staple: it has plenty of fibre and is packed with nutrients, such as magnesium and potassium. Make sure you soak the beans overnight and rinse them really well – it will cut down on cooking time and make them much easier to digest.
Try this dhal for dinner in the chilly weather – it’s so tasty and warming. Plus, the leftover dhal tastes even better the next day for lunch!
Mung Bean Dhal
“Dhal has been used for thousands of years in traditional Indian medicine for its healing qualities – it’s said to balance all three of the doshas and help to remove toxins (ama) from the body,” says Lola Berry. “People have been known to cleanse on this meal alone for a week, so it must be pretty nourishing! It’s also said to aid digestion and, thanks to the spices, has beneficial anti-inflammatory properties.”Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 litre chicken stock, plus extra if needed
- 2 cups (400g) green mung beans, soaked overnight and rinsed
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 2 tablespoons ghee, coconut oil or butter
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, diced
- 2cm piece of ginger, grated
- 2cm piece of fresh turmeric, grated
- 2 carrots, grated
- 1 zucchini, grated
- 100g baby spinach
- Salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
- ½ bunch of coriander, leaves picked
- Bring the stock to the boil in a large saucepan. Reduce the heat to a simmer, add the mung beans and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes, or until tender.
- Meanwhile, set a frying pan over a medium heat, add the mustard and cumin seeds and dry fry until the mustard seeds begin to pop. Add the ghee, coconut oil or butter, the onion, garlic, ginger and turmeric to the pan and cook for 3 minutes (the room should smell pretty amazing at this point).
- Tip the spice mixture into the mung beans and give everything a good stir, then cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a touch more stock or a splash of water if it looks as though the dhal is sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add the carrot, zucchini and baby spinach and cook, stirring, for a final 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and spoon into bowls.
- Season with salt and pepper and serve topped with loads of coriander leaves.
Lola’s Tips
“I like my dhal nice and thick, but if you prefer yours soupy then add another 1 cup (250ml) of stock before serving. And if you want to keep this one vegetarian, switch the chicken stock for veggie. Also, be sure to give your soaked mung beans a good rinse before using them as this makes them easier to digest.”
Recipes and images extracted from The Yoga Body by Lola Berry, published by Plum, RRP $34.99, available in all good bookstores now.
