Best Dal / Dahl ever! Delicious lentils dish :) Estufado de lentilhas

Versao portuguesa mais abaixo 🙂

Best Dahl ever! But before just let me know that I finally bought my camera on amazon, so from next week no more bad quality pictures, yay! Now on to the recipe, this dish is amazing, really tasty and filling, can be eaten with bread, rice or by itself, it can be made heavier or lighter according to the amount of fat used. I kept mine quite low. This dish requires a few spices, but you can always adapt to suit your taste or pantry. This recipe serves 3 if served with rice, or 2 (that eat a lot, like me) if by itself.

-250grs of brown lentils soaked overnight (or yellow, red or black, but adjust cooking time)
-200grs of black beans,or kidney, white… (have been previously soaked and cooked but you can use either canned ones or just soaked like the lentils)

In a pressure cooker, fry 2cm of fresh ginger with 3 cloves of garlic, both finely chopped in a little olive oil, when the garlic starts to have a bit of color add the lentils and the beans and cover them with water ( not a lot, I wanted a thick dahl) maybe 3 to 4 cms above the lentils.Add 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of paprike, 1/2 teaspoon of chili flakes and sea salt to taste, bu don’t be too shy, otherwise it will be bland. Cover the pan and cook for 30 minutes, if after this you think they are under cooked, just let it cook other 10m.

On a frying pan fry 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds with 1 teaspoon of nigella or black seeds, when it starts to kind of pop add 2 cloves of garlic,1 large onion, 1cm of ginger and half a fresh chili, everything finely chopped, add a pinch of salt, let cook down for 10m. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and let it cook for another 5 to 8 minutes, stirring often.

Once the lentils are cooked (you can mash it a bit with a spoon or not, up to you), add the tomato/onion paste to it and cook for 5 m and serve. I can’t describe the party in my mouth ;D
It may look long, but if you do both at the same time, you will have this epicness in 35 minutes. Enjoy x

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Dahl e’ um prato tipico da India, Paquistao, Banglades, etc e consiste de um estufado feito com lentilhas e /ou feijao, e bastantes especiarias. Acompanhado normalmente por arroz ou pao. Se nao tiverem estas especiarias podem sempre usar as que tiverem por casa, mas diria que e’ mesmo necesario pelo menos o gengibre, o chili e os cuminhos. Este prato ‘e super saboroso, acolhedor, perfeito para uma noite mais fria ❤ Esta receita serve 3 pessoas com arroz ou pao, ou so’ 2 comiloes como nos 😉

-250grs de lentilhas castanhas (ja demolhadas durante a noite, tambem se pode usar outra qualidade de lentilhas, mas tem que se ter cuidado com o tempo de cozedura)
-200grs de feijao preto ( omeu ja estava demolhado e cozinhado, mas pode estar so demolhado, ou tambem se pode usar de lata. E tambem se pode variar a qualidade do feijao)

Colocar numa panela de pressao um fio de azeite, 3 dentes de alho e um pedacinho de 2cms de gengibre, ambos muito bem picados. Quando o alho ganhar cor adicionar as lentilhas e o feijao e agua suficiente para cobrir, talvez uns 3 ou 4 dedos acima das leguminosas. Adicionar 1 colher de cha’ de curcuma(acafrao das indias), 1/2 colher de cha’ de pimenta preta, 1/2 de parika ou pimentao, 1/2 de chili seco e sal marinho grosso a gosto, nao colocar pouco,pouco senao ficara’ desenssabido. Tapar a panela e deixar cozinhar durante 30m em lume medio. Usar o senso comum, se nao estiver cozinhado tapa-se e cozinha-se durante mais uns minutos.

Numa frigideira, colocar azeite , 1 colher de cha’ de sementes de cuminhos (ou po’, mas a semente tem mais sabor), 1 colher de cha’ de sementes de nigella (ou pode-se substituir por sementes de coentros, ou po’ ou fresco, ou por 2 colheres de sementes de cuminhos, tambem se pode juntar louro). Quando as sementes comecarem a fritar adicionar uma cebola grande picada,2 dentes de alhos,um bocadinho de gengibre fresco por volta de 1cm e meia malagueta, tudo bem picado e uma pitada de sal (pouco, so para ajudar a cebola a caramelizar), deixar cozinhar durante 10m, quando a cebola estiver translucida adicionar 2 colheres de sopa de pasta de tomate (nao e’ polpa, aquela mais concentrada) e deixar cozinhar por mais 5 a 8 minutos.

Quando as lentilhas estiverem bem cozidas, adicionar esta pasta ja feita de cebola e especiarias. Deixar cozinhar durante 5 minutos e servir. Espero que experimentem pois e’ delicioso! Parece bastante longo, mas nao e’, se for feito ao mesmo tempo em 35m estara pronto o prato 🙂 Bom apetite xdahl

Black beans 2 ways, vegan

One of our favorite foods is Black Beans, they are delicious, nutritious and a great substitute for meat, but never good looking, I’m afraid..
This are 2 simple dishes one with couscous with a mushroom,spinach and black beans stew, the 2nd is a mix of white and black rice (hence the purple color) and kale, tomatoes and black beans stew. Always a winner in our house

Aqui em casa adoramos feijao preto, é super nutritivo e maravilhoso em vez de carne. Nunca parece é muito apetitoso, mas garanto que o é
Estes 2 pratos sao bem simples, 2 estufados de feijao preto, um com cogumelos, espinafres e cous cous e outro com couve e tomate e uma mixtura de arroz branco e preto, dai a cor roxa .

black beans stew

black beans stew 2

Rich Black Beans Chocolate Brownies !

Just one day off work this week means that it is being spent in the house mainly, slept until late as I needed to catch up on it, waking up at 7 all week is not that easy!

Since I found this  https://fionabluerecipes.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/healthy-baking-swaps/comment-page-1/#comment-47  that I wanted to try to make brownies with black beans, so I searched the internet, the best cook book ever, and found a recipe at the food network website. The measures are in cups, the american way, but you can find the conversion quite easily on the internet. I have one of that plastic measuring cups that have all sorts of measurements in it, so I hope it is accurate.

At this very moment I’m waiting for the brownies to cool so i can cut and plate them, hope it’s tastyyyy!

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The ingredients :

3/4 cup cooked black bean

1/2 cup vegetable oil, or olive oil

2 eggs

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, divided

1/3 cup flour (wholemeal)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

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This is the original recipe, I swapped sugar for honey and added 2 tablespoons of matcha. I used a whole packet of dark 70% chocolate, and unfortunately I didn’t have better choco powder, just the cadbury one…

I blended everything wet together, beans with oil until smooth, after eggs, melted chocolate and cocoa powder, coffee, vanilla extract and honey. On a bowl I mixed flour, baking powder and salt and added this to the blender and pulse just until all is mixed.

I broke some pieces of chocolate and added to the mixture. Grease your baking tray and bake for 20m at 200 C or 390 F.

Enjoy and let me know if you ever baked sweets with unexpected ingredients!

They taste amazing, rich and moist!! Perfect with some green tea with mint leaves!

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Take care till next time xx