I was a bit late coming up to the cabin this year because I wanted to stay in town for the family party Bid and Paul were throwing for my great niece, Asha, who just graduated from high school. And of COURSE, Bid went all out and bought special decorations and made an amazing cake with a mortar board on it.
Note my nephew, Stefan, at the end of the video–he’d actually bought Father’s Day tickets for he and his dad to attend a World Cup game at 6PM that day, but cancelled because of the party–he’s always such a good sport.
The graduate, Asha, with her boyfriend, Emerson, and her mum (my niece), Erin (note Bid’s cute decorations in the background!):
In any event, James picked me up in Nanaimo a few days later, and I’ve been blissfully ensconced up here at Sideways Cottage since early last week.
And I’m delighted to be back in my (slightly) bigger kitchen with all my machines!
I came across an Instagram post this morning of a woman throwing together what she called “Not-So-Dal” in a rice cooker, and I thought it looked delicious. When she said it was not only fast to make, but cheap, I was sold.
However, my rice cooker is very small, and it also takes forty minutes to make even long-grain white rice. So I decided to use the Instant Pot instead.
And I always like to beef up my legumes and lentil soups and stews with extra vegetables, so what the hell, I added onions, peppers, celery, and carrots. And then I subbed broth for water and a full can of light coconut milk for a 1/2 cup of coconut cream.
I tried a serving with some homemade potato bread and it was very tasty, but the dal definitely needed something else…which I finally decided had to be apples…which I didn’t have. I did have apple sauce though, and the addition made it perfect!
I will definitely make this deliciousness again–especially since I was able to cook it up in under a half hour. The result is almost like Vegan Richa’s recipe for the amazingly comforting dish called “kitchari,” but without the rice.
Like kitchari, it’s definitely a cozy dish!
So here we go!
Tasty, Cozy Not-So-Dal
First, start the saute function on the Instant Pot, add a spray of oil and saute for a few minutes…
- 1 white onion, chopped
Add the following and saute for another minute…
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp coconut sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp black pepper
Next, add and saute for another minute…
- 300 grams red lentils
Next, add…
- 1 can (796 ml) chopped tomatoes
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 TBS Better Than Bouillon roasted vegetable base (dissolved in the water)
Stir well and leave on the saute function until the mixture starts to boil. Meanwhile, chop the following…
- 1 yellow pepper
- 2 stalks of celery
- 2 cups of carrots
When the mixture comes to a boil, toss in the vegetables, seal the pot, turn off the saute function, and set the pressure cooker to manual for zero minutes.
The Instant Pot will achieve pressure quickly because of the boiling water and because there is not a huge amount of liquid. When it beeps, let it release pressure naturally for twelve minutes and then release the rest of the pressure manually.
Stir and taste and adjust the seasonings–it might need a bit more black pepper!
Then add…
- 1 can light coconut cream milk
- 1/2 cup apple sauce
Serve with basmati rice….
Or toast…
The recipe makes seven or eight cup-and-a-half servings, and each serving contains 240 calories and just over twelve grams of protein.
Speaking of graduations, a picture of my darling Em on her high school graduation day popped up in my pictures a couple of days ago. She’s with her grandfather–my dad. I miss that old guy sometimes…
And the song of the day is José González’s “Veneer” because he’s coming to Vancouver in mid-September, and we’re trying to decide whether to buy tickets or stay up up at Sideways Cottage until the end of September.
Sideways Cottage... 