Sunrise Daal

I saw the sun rise while I was running yesterday. I was going down MacArthur Boulevard towards the city and I watched the windows turn metallic orange on the high rises in Rosslyn; it reminded me of the 4th of July, when we sat on the grass in Georgetown next to the Potomac. Huge fireworks were exploding over the Washington Monument and reflecting off the buildings behind us, and it seemed like we were surrounded by glowing embers. I doubt I'll be seeing the sun much on my runs from now on, which I think means summer is officially leaving: I'm ready to eat soups and other hearty dishes every day! Lentil Daal is one of my favorites, and a recipe that I thought should probably be posted and immortalized since I make it every other week. It serves as a protein for me, which is something I'm always looking for. I've adjusted my recipe over the last couple months and have recently started replacing red lentils with yellow- I find the texture to be meatier, and the color brighter (hence, the title of this post!)

Ingredients

1 cup yellow lentils
4 cups water (use 3 cups water with red lentils)
1 tomato, cut in wedges
2 tbsp. oil
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1 medium onion, chopped (I use red, because I like the color)
5 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp. coriander
3/4 tsp. tumeric
1/2 tsp. cayenne
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tbsp. butter

Bring lentils, water, and tomato to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes (yellow lentils will take longer than red). When lentils are almost done (the consistency should be fairly thick at this point, and it should be sputtering and popping a little), heat the oil and add the cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds stop sputtering add the onion and garlic- cook for 4-5 minutes. Add the spices and cook for a couple minutes longer, then pour the mixture into the cooked lentils. Stir in the salt and butter- let the daal finish up over low heat for just a minute or two more (it's fine to take it off the heat at this point if you're worried about overcooking it). This recipe, along with brown rice, Indian Cabbage, and raita (lemon, yogurt, salt, cucumber, cilantro), is enough for three meals.

The most difficult thing about this dish is that there's not a lot of down time while you wait for the daal to cook. I'm usually furiously chopping onion or cabbage, making raita, and measuring spices. I leave the pot of lentils uncovered unless it looks like they aren't cooking fast enough, but especially at the beginning they have a tendency to get foamy and boil over, which is a huge mess, so leaving them uncovered allows me to check on them and prevent that from happening. Towards the middle/end of their cooking period you need to start stirring them frequently, as they tend to stick to the bottom. It's helpful to measure out all your spices beforehand, particularly if you're making this in combination with Indian Cabbage, which incorporates a lot of spices, too. Of course, if you're Rachael Ray or Rhonda Mapes you can just eye-ball it! I don't have a fantastic picture of my daal because I was too hungry to eat it after making it last night, but take a look instead at my mason jars filled with goodies (including yellow lentils):

I plan on posting more pictures of my little apartment soon, but I'm waiting to make a couple other changes before I broadcast my space to the world!