Indian Red Lentil Dip Recipe

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Hey guys! This is Heather from HealthyVeganRecipes.net. Today we are going to make the fastest bean dip ever. It’s something that I make for lunch fairly often because it’s so quick and easy and also because of course it taste awesome and it’s really healthy.

We’re gonna start with is a base of red lentils which are the split red lentils so they cook really really fast, to make it even faster if you have an electric kettle, put some water in there, bring it to a boil and then it will come to a boil even faster.

We’re gonna start by putting some spices into the pot and toast them a little bit to bring out the flavor. Ok, so I’ve got this pot back here on medium high heat. I’m going to add one tablespoon of some mix Indian spice. I’ll post a link to that spice mix.

You could also use just a mix of any Indian spices that you like so cumin, coriander, turmeric that’s pretty much what I have in here and so like I said when you toast them its gonna bring out their flavor a little bit more but you gotta make sure that they don’t burn.

I like to dry toast them because it brings out the flavor of the spice whereas most people will toast this in oil which causes the spice to infuse into the oil which is nice but it kind of closes the flavor of the spice whereas this will open the flavor out as the oils in those spices comes out.

And you can hear my water starting to come to a boil so what I’m gonna do now is add the red lentils and that is what they look like for those of you who have not seen them. They’re split in half and they’re orange. When they cook they will turn yellow.

So not quite red but what are you gonna do. So stir the spices through the lentils, just get it mix, it will diffuse the heat a little bit. It’s getting kind of hot so I’m gonna turn it down to about four. My scale goes to nine so it’s like a medium low. Then once your water comes to a boil, I usually just pour it in until it looks about right but I’m gonna measure it today.

You can hear it sizzle when I dumped in the water because the pot and the lentil are already hot. You can see its boiling right away. So I’m gonna do a little bit more. So once you get that boiling you can turn it down. I’m gonna turn this down to just above two and put a lid on it so that the water won’t all evaporate.

For spices you can do any type of spice you want or dry herbs if you prefer. I like the Indian flavor with the lentils, just goes very nicely and I’m gonna put it in some toasted sesame oil as well which is always really nice with the Indian spices.

I like a fair amount of those spices, you can use more or less depending on your taste but I don’t like things to taste spicy like hot spicy so I don’t have any cayenne or anything like that in there but if you want to it does taste really fantastic if your into that kind of thing.

So leave that to boil, it shouldn’t take more than ten to fifteen minutes for these lentils to cook. You can give it some stir every so often, make sure they’re softening up and just make sure they doesn’t ran out of water because the beans will dry up.

Also, don’t add any salt yet because it will cause the lentils to have a hard outer skin and they won’t cook properly. So don’t add salt until the lentil are fully cook. Ok, that’s been boiling away and the downside by the way of glass pot is that they break and I broke the lid for this pot so I use a plate as my lid but I have to be careful because it gets hot just sitting there. And it also gets a lot of condensation.

So, take a look here. Those are perfectly cooked. I’m gonna turn the heat off and what I’m gonna add here is a little bit of apple cider vinegar. You can also use lemon or lime juice. It will taste lovely especially with this flavor combo.

And then I’m going to add as well some sunflower seed butter. You can use tahini, you can use almond butter, you can even use peanut butter in this recipe if you want to. It will have a very peanut buttery flavor but if you like that it will kinda like a bean peanut butter for spring rolls in just a lot thicker.

So that was about two tablespoon of nut seed butter. For those of you by the way who want the exact recipe and measurements and directions and all that fun stuff. I will post that over at HealthyVeganRecipes.net just head over to the link with the video and find all that info.

The nice thing about doing a red lentil dip is that you don’t even need a blender or a food processor because they get so soft that I’m just mixing this up with a fork until its smooth. The last couple things I’m gonna add for flavor are I’ve got a couple of small glove garlic there that I’m gonna press in.

Fresh garlic is fantastic for helping prevent cold and flu so it’s great time to get garlic in your life. And I got a little bit of toasted sesame oil because its flavor is just irreplaceable. There’s nothing quite like it although is optional, you don’t have to put it in, you can season this however you like.

I would normally put some fresh ginger in here but the ginger in the store yesterday was just kind of pathetic looking. It’s all small and kind if shrivelled and it look like it haven’t had flavour to it so I pass and today I’m putting garlic instead.

Once you get all of your seasoning in there, you need to add a little bit of salt which I’m using my herbamere. I’ll post the spelling of this stuff because a lot of you have been asking me. I am just at the grocery store and they do have a website. I’m not sure if you can order on their website or not but I think you can order at Amazon now. Amazon seems to have everything. If you ever feel like you can’t find an ingredient, check Amazon. And they’re selling all kind of food on there now.

Ok, so all that’s left is give it a taste and make sure you like it. Yup! It’s good! It always tastes like slightly different because I make it in a styling different way maybe some different spices or different amount of things. So it’s always interesting to see how things turns out but today its really really good.

I don’t always toast the spices and that’s really made a difference in the flavour I think. So to serve this you can put it as just a spread for a sandwich or wrap. One thing I love to do is to steam some carrots and beets and then grate them and put them in here.

The beets will turn it to pink so it’s kind of fun but it makes a great filling for lettuce wrap and I also like to put this on top of a salad or on top of just some steam vegetables. Makes for a great flavor combo and it makes a meal more filling because you get some lentils in there.

So that’s about it, you can again find the recipe over at HealthyVeganRecipes.net. I hope you guys try it, enjoy it and I will see you next time.