Golden lentil curry

Warm, spicy hearty golden curry with a healthier touch: instead of serving it with the usual rice I like serving this with zoodles. Zoodles are zucchini noodles that are simply made by cutting the zucchini with a spiralizer. If you don’t happen to have one of those at home, you can simply make `linguini` by cutting threads of the vegetable with a vegeteble peeler. It lifts the creamy dish to a new level, adding freshness and bite to it.

I noticed I am on a bit of a kabocha pumpkin roll here, I just posted one cake recipe with it recently, and I still love to use it when preparing my lunch salads. This recipe lets you taste a different side of it. The pumpkin gets cooked in the curry, and infused with the spices and becomes perfectly tender, it is not watery or falling apart but melting on your tongue.

The golden turmeric is an incredible anti-oxidant and well known for its healing properties. It is best to consume it with some fats, as that is how our body can utilize it best. Who doesn`t need a bit of immune boosting just now when the windy autumn is here?

I also started to try to look at photography in a different way, experiment a bit with setups and distances. Let’s see where it will take me.

Ingredients for 6 portions

• 300g yellow lentils
• 2 cm fresh ginger
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons ras el hannout
• 2 teaspoons tumeric
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• Chili flakes or sliced fresh chilli peppers
• Freshly grated black pepper
• 500 mililitre vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 50 g coconut cream
• 1 small (550 g) kabocha pumpkin
• 200 ml Coconut milk (I like the Alpro-rice and coconut milk because it is fresh and not too fatty)
• 3 courgettes

Toppings

• Pumpkin seeds
• Freshly chopped cilantro

 

Soak yellow lentils in lukewarm water for 4 hours or overnight then drain and rinse well.

Peel and mince ginger, garlic and onion. In a big pan heat up the coconut oil and toast onion, garlic and all the spices for a few minutes on medium fire then add the lentils, braise for a few minutes and add the stock. Mix it well so that there are no burnt bits stuck to the bottom and let it simmer for ten minutes.

You don`t need to peel kabocha pumpkin, as the skin will get perfectly soft when cooked, so just halve it, remove the seeds, cut off the top and the bottom and dice small. Tip into the pot with the coconut milk and cook for about ten more minutes, until the pumpkin is just tender but not falling apart.

Instead of rice I like to serve them with zoodles, spaghetti shaped zucchini. Just before serving peel the zucchini and cut it into spaghetti with a spiralizer or cut thin threads with a vegetable peeler. Toss it into the pot and let it warm up in 2 minutes, but there is no need to boil it or let it simmer for long, otherwise it can get watery and soggy, the courgette is tastiest when still has a bite.

Serve it straightaway topped with pumpkin seeds and cilantro.