Bombay-style cauliflower with red split lentils

Sometimes you find a gem by accident because you have a few ingredients and wondering what to do with them. This recipe is in the cookbook by Madhur Jaffrey that a friend gifted us after cooking us curry dinners at university. 

We are delighted by how simple it is to make and how different it tastes to many of the dishes in our repertoire. As we have a vegetarian friend coming over to dinner this week, we thought this would be the perfect dish to make because usually the chicken is added at the last minute.

The original recipe is called Murghi aur mansoor dal or Bombay-style chicken with red split lentils. As we're serving this to a vegetarian, we have substituted the chicken with cauliflower.

The ingredients for 2 people are:

80-100g red split lentils

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped

1 fresh green chilli (we like it hot so we use 1 chilli per person)

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon ginger, finely chopped

400-500ml water

Put these in a pan and simmer for 45 minutes.

If you're using cauliflower, cut 200g to pieces and steam for 3 minutes and let it cool.

Fry in a small pan the following, until the garlic brown around the edges:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon of ginger, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Add to the simmering lentils, along with:

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp salt, to taste

1/3 teaspoon garam masala

And cook another 5 minutes.

In the meantime, fry the cauliflower (or chicken pieces) in the pan used for frying the spices, until brown. This is around 3-4 minutes. Then add to the lentils and mix well before serving with fluffy Basmati rice. The lemon gives it a zingy flavour and you will like the heat and bite from the green chilli. It's not going to numb your tongue, but it's going to be hot enough.

It was so good our friend now wants the recipe!