Eggplant Dal
TGIF, Friends! We made it! A few weeks ago, Ashley and I had the pleasure of doing a little Perfectly Imperfect cooking at the new Daves Teaching Kitchen in Midtown with Slow Foods, an organization curating events that connect people with their food. They hosted an evening discussing how to use produce on its last leg and we of course had to be involved with that! If you're interested in hearing more about Slow Food Cleveland, you can click here!
One of the recipes shared utilized some eggplant about to be tossed out at the grocery store due to dark spots and bruises. Janet Kramer, a clinical dietitian from UH, shared her favorite Eggplant Dal recipe using these eggplants, cutting around the dark spots, and leaving us with an incredibly flavorful dish that came together quickly!
After seeing the eggplant in this week's organic boxes, I knew I wanted to share Janet's recipe with our PIP community. I also have a slew of potatoes left from some PIP boxes, so if you have a few stragglers on your counter, be sure to add those in! The recipe is easy- combine a few spices, eggplant, potatoes and red lentils which cook down to thicken the "stew" and you've got a delicious and healthy Indian dinner ready in less than 30 minutes. Let's dig in!
Eggplant Dal recipe originally from The Yogi Cookbook by Yogi Vithaldas & Susan Roberts serves 4 Ingredients 3 Tablespoons oil or ghee 3/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 1 tsp cumin seed 1 tsp mustard seed 1/2 cup red lentils 1 Perfectly Imperfect Produce organic eggplant, diced 2 Perfectly Imperfect Produce organic potatoes, diced 2 cups water
Directions 1. Heat ghee and add spices, salt, cayenne, cumin and mustard seed, stirring until the mustard seeds start to pop! 2. Add the red lentils and continue stirring until the lentils toast lightly. 3. Add eggplant, potatoes and water. Bring to a boil. 4. Cover and cook over a medium simmer for 25 minutes. The lentils will lose their color, however the dish is rich and creamy once they break down in the sauce. 5. Serve the dal with basmati rice and a healthy dollop of yogurt. Sprinkle with red onion and cilantro if you have them on hand. Enjoy!
Hope you give this recipe a try, and let us know what you think! As always, we love to see what you create each week in the kitchen, so be sure to tag us on instagram, @perfectlyimperfectproduce, so we can follow along! Have a great weekend, thanks for another great week!
