Dhal Recipe £1 a day

Penny-Pincher!!

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Indian food actually tastes a lot better the next day IMO, and I can't think of a single curry dish that doeesn't freeze well. Do be a mindful that some lentils are high in carbs rather than proteins so it's worth googling the nutritional content first.

Thanks so much for the info. Ive just checked and there is 9g of protein per 100g serving cooked of lentils. I need to be eating 25g per meal, but I suppose I could add chicken or minced lamb to it or would that not be okay? Do you just have the Dahl or do you have rice with it or Naan?

OH always makes a curry toastie if we have an Indian take away the next day and he's always said it tastes better.

Also, do you have a VERY simple recipe to follow? I know I'm pushing it:D

Ta.

PP
xx

LavenderBees

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I agree, but there are many others - myself included - that find the advice given helpful so contributions are appreciated. Just not by the OP.

I agree also. Thanks for all the contributions. I do most of this anyway, but there's wee things that you can learn from others that all make a difference. I applaud those who continue to try to help others. I for one greatly appreciate all the help given on these forums. The fact the OP is strangely argumentative is irrelevant (though, I have to say, strangely entertaining ..:rotfl: ). Nobody needs to take the advice offered, but I certainly do and am reaping the rewards every day.

LB xx

strangeotron

VfM4meplse wrote: »

You really are playing us now. How else do you cook dried foods? :shocked:

I followed your recipe so it's my fault? There are thousands of ways to cook all sorts of meals, some people eat raw steak. Would you be so critical of people that suggested steak tartar if you didn't know what it was?

VfM4meplse

orangesmartie wrote: »

Thanks for the link, I'll be having that for tea tomorrow, as long as i find a chappatti receipe

Simples - enjoy!

Memory_Girl

Ah I did wonder why the OP was being a bit off. Hadn't made the connection before.

Nevertheless - I'm sure others have got a lot out of our chat LOL.

VfM4mepls - sound like you have a store like mine. Loads of dried foods and a freezer of useful things.

MG

Gigervamp

And for anybody who is *really* starting cooking food from scratch, if dried foods such as lentils are in the recipe, they do need either soaking or cooking with liquid.

It's always worth checking out how ingredients are normally cooked if you haven't used them before.

unhappy_shopper

First and foremost, thanks to VfM4meplse for many useful tips :-)

Memory_Girl wrote: »

in the space of a few months I had managed to buy all the staples I needed and our food bills for the last three weeks have been

£15.28
£16.93 and
£19.93

Well done, MemoryGirl on your achievements.

Memory_Girl wrote: »

BTW - 2kg of urad dal bought from A Food last month for £1.95 which makes 40 portions of dal.

Just wanted to point out here for people not so familiar with Indian foodstuff, dal used mostly in Indian cuisine refers to toor dal (yellow pigeon peas), chana dal (chickpeas), moong dal (green gram) or masoor dal (red lentils). Urad dal (blackgram) is used as ingredient to the batter for dosai and idli and in Punjabi dal preparations.

valk_scot

I don't know if anyone is still reading this thread but here's my recipe for easy, cheap, low fat daal. 8oz of yellow split peas or chana daal, rinse, put in pot with twice the volime of water, bring to the boil, skim off any froth, simmer till soft but not sludgy, adding more water little by little as required. I like the daal to still have a little shape but not have any water left. It takes a low hob heat for this, or do it in the oven.

Then add salt to taste plus good old fashioned curry powder. That's it. No fat, no veg, just curry powder, salt, daal and water. (You can use garam masala if you like but that's just fancy curry powder.) It's really surprisingly good, excellent for these folk who are cutting down on fat in their diet and it freezes well. My kids love it. I do make fancier daals with the spices and onion fried in oil and poured on top but this is my middle of the week recipe for putting next to another curry.

crumblepie

strangeotron wrote: »

I shop at Tesco which costs me £7 to get to.

Can't you do a home delivery? In my area the cheapest delivery slots cost £3 or £3.50 on Monday and Tuesday which is cheaper than a return bus ticket to town for me.

VfM4meplse

unhappy_shopper wrote: »

Just wanted to point out here for people not so familiar with Indian foodstuff, dal used mostly in Indian cuisine refers to toor dal (yellow pigeon peas), chana dal (chickpeas), moong dal (green gram) or masoor dal (red lentils). Urad dal (blackgram) is used as ingredient to the batter for dosai and idli and in Punjabi dal preparations.

The red lentils are a great bulking agent to thicken and add protein to blended vegetable soups, works really well with butternut squash / pumpkin soup for example. They may start out red, but turn to a yellow colour when cooked so don't really affect the colour of a dish. I tend to part blend the channa dahl after I have boiled it for a thicker result before I add any spices, otherwise it separates. Puy lentils are great in salads as they hold their shape well. My favourite is the black dahl which turns really creamy, it's also good if a small qty of kidney beans are added whilst in the pressure cooker.

For some reason I've never really got on with the green lentils when cooked in the usual way, so I'm on the look out for a good recipe - any suggestions as to what to so with them (including for non-dahl dishes) will be gratefully received.