Sweet and sour dal with macaroni
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Serve
- Serves 4
This delicious double carb dal is made extra special with a sweet and sour temper of ginger, chilli, lime and tamarind.
Ingredients
For the sweet and sour dal and macaroni
For the temper
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 heaped tsp black mustard seeds
- pinch asafoetida
- 20 fresh curry leaves
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
- 2 cloves
- 10g/1/3oz ginger, finely grated
- 2 large garlic cloves, finely grated
- 1 dried Kashmiri chilli, broken
- 2 green chillies, very finely chopped
- 10g/1/3oz tomato purée
- 100g/3½oz passata
- 25g/1oz tamarind paste (Thai variety)
- 30g/1oz grated jaggery or soft brown sugar
- 1 lime, juice only
- sea salt
Method
To make the dal, add the toor dal, chilli, turmeric and peanuts to a large pot with 2.5 litres/4½ pints of water and bring to the boil. Cook until soft and broken down, this should take 25–30 minutes. Keep an eye to make sure it doesn't dry out, you can add a little more water if so.
Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water according to packet instructions, drain and set aside.
To make the temper, heat the coconut oil in a separate pan on a medium heat and add the mustard seeds. As soon as they pop, add the asafoetida followed by the curry leaves.
Once the leaves have crackled, add the cumin, cinnamon and cloves and fry briefly before adding the ginger, garlic and chillies. Fry until cooked and fragrant then add tomato purée and cook until it releases its oil.
Pour in the passata, tamarind and jaggery. Let it come to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
Pour the temper into the cooked dal along with 1 litre/1¾ pints water to create a soupy consistency and bring to a boil.
Add the cooked macaroni and heat through for around 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lime juice.
To serve, ladle the dal and macaroni into serving bowls.
Top with red onion, coriander and extra peanuts and serve immediately.
