Food Friday – Dhansak Curry & Flat Bread

Dhansak Curry and 5 minute Flat Bread

Serves 2-3 people

Ingredients list:

4-5 garlic cloves
A thumb sized piece of fresh ginger
1 tsp Tomato purée
1x Tinned tomatoes
2 tbsp Cumin powder or seeds
2 small red onions or 1 large
2 small white onions or 1 large
4 tbsp Coriander powder
2 tbsp Tamarind paste
Some chunks of fresh Or tinned pineapple
A few handfuls of Spinach
A packet of Paneer cheese (optional)
1 red pepper
Sugar – white or brown
Rapeseed oil
250g approx red lentils. (Must be red)
2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder or chilli powder
1 tsp Garam masala powder
4 tbsp Turmeric powder
2 tbsp Curry powder
1 tsp Fenugreek powder or leaves
A handful Fresh coriander leaves
Brown basmati rice (half a cup for 2 people)
Plain Yoghurt (optional)
1tsp Mustard seeds
150ml Plain coconut yogurt or plain/ greek style yoghurt
150g self raising flour (or gluten free self raising flour)
1 teaspoon of olive and a pinch of salt

Method:
Flat Bread preparation

Place all of the following into a bowl

150ml Plain coconut yogurt or plain/ Greek style yoghurt
150g self raising flour (or gluten free self raising flour)
1 teaspoon of olive and a pinch of salt

Scatter some flour on a dry surface.. and roll into a ball and cut in 2. Set aside for now with cling film.

Main recipe

4 parts water to 1 part lentils. 250g lentils, bring to the boil and boil for 10 mins, then simmer and cover for an additional 15mins order until water has absorbed. Set aside for later.

In a heavy based pot, put in a good glug of rapeseed oil and bring to a medium heat. Add in 1 large yellow and 1 large red onion, diced finely. And stir and add salt pinch. Let it do its thing for 10 mins, while prepping other things.

Wash and rinse the rice of choice and add water with salt and 1/2 tsp of the turmeric to infuse. Bring to the boil and don’t stir and then cover and simmer until water has absorbed. When this is so, remove from the heat and set aside for serving.

Spice mix
Add the following together in a bowl or jar.

1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp fenugreek
4 tbsp turmeric
2 tbsp cumin
4 tbsp coriander
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt

To the onion mix- add 1 tbsp tomato puree and a splash of water

Layer the pot up with the following this order:

2 heaped tsp of the spice mix and an additional 1 tsp kashmiri chilli
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp crushed mustard seeds
4-5 garlic cloves crushed and chopped
A thumb piece size of chopped ginger
1 Tin chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp paste with a splash of water and 1 tsp brown sugar
Pineapple, spinach and red peppers to your liking
Add the cooked lentils
Add paneer cheese cut into cubes, if using
1 heaped tbsp brown sugar

Cover and simmer until bread is ready……

Cook the flat bread

Press down or roll out with rolling pin and dry fry for a few minutes and turn for a few minutes and serve warm on a medium heat. This heat will depend on your hob. Scatter with coriander, salt and olive oil.

Serve the curry with rice and bread.

Scatter coriander and serve with a side of yoghurt.

Curry will last in the fridge for up to 3-4 days. You can also freeze the curry for 1 month.

Nutritional Information:

This recipe is completely free from:

-Gluten
-Wheat
-Eggs
-Nuts

-The curry is full of aromatic spices and herbs and garlic which are rich in antioxidants.

-The Paneer cheese, lentils and the Yoghurt are packed with protein
-The pineapple contains bromelain which is a digestive enzyme which helps break down protein from our foods.

-Spinach contains vitamin E and magnesium to support immune function.

-Ginger supports health digestion also.

-Tomatoes and peppers contain vitamin C

About Sal Hanvey

Sal Hanvey is an award winning Nutrition Consultant. She has a real passion for finding ingredient substitutes and alternatives for those people with food intolerances, or allergies, without compromising on nutritional value or taste.

Sal writes for various publications around the subjects of nutrition and well-being. Sal offers ‘Stir Crazy’ cook-a-long classes online to help people to connect, or re-connect to the universal language that we all know and love- to enjoy good food. The classes are interactive, live and very much nutrition led.

This series of #FoodFriday is kindly supported by Inspire Wellbeing and the Change Your Mind programme. Change Your Mind It is a joint programme run by Inspire and the Public Health Agency. It is Northern Ireland’s regional campaign to tackle stigma and discrimination around mental health. They are funded by Comic Relief and work in partnership with a range of organisations and community networks across Northern Ireland.

They are a grassroots campaign shaped by the collaboration of communities, organisations and individuals who are championing the message against mental health stigma across society – a campaign for people, driven by people. Read more here.