Darina Allen: How to make The Happy Pear's easy 10-minute Indian dhal

David and Stephen Flynn share a few recipes to whet your appetite

This dhal is richly flavoured, deeply nourishing and ready in just 10 minutes

The Happy Pear Boys ‘powered by veg’, are celebrating 20 years in business.

Twin brothers David and Stephen Flynn were just 24-years-old when they decided to open a little veg shop in Greystones in Co. Wicklow.

It soon morphed into a cafe, supper club, a coffee roastery and a production facility for their products. Next step was to buy two farms.

Meanwhile, in their ‘spare time’, they gave cooking courses, wrote six best-selling cookbooks, did lots of TV programmes, set up a YouTube channel while encouraging everyone they came in contact with to eat more veg and look after our planet. There’s no stopping these lads!

A recent crowdfunder raised €2.5 million in less than 24 hours; such is the influence of these supercharged brothers.

At first, they were vehement vegans, embracing a strict wholefood plant-based diet. Striving for what they felt was dietary perfection. They meticulously followed the advice of every health guru, pushing themselves to the extreme. On their own admission, ‘We were annoyingly preachy, those vegans who always turned every meal into a discussion about food and why what was on our plate was better than what was on yours!’

However, when they had children, their food philosophy gradually evolved and can now be summed up in their words – ‘eat more veg and keep well away from UPF’s (ultra processed foods)’.

They are very hot on the need for extra fibre in our diet and the importance of each of us doing our bit to look after the environment and the soil that feeds us.

Their latest book includes a collection of the tried and tested, Flynn Family Favourites, the cafes’ most beloved and economic dishes and lots of top 20 lists.

• 20 ways to eat more veg (and to get your kids to eat more veg!)
• 20 ways to pick yourself up when feeling down
• 20 things we’ve learned after 20 years
• 20 learnings from our podcasts
• 20 dreams we have…

They’re sharing a few recipes to whet your appetite here and there’s lots more excitement between the covers of The Happy Pear 20.

• All recipes from The Happy Pear 20, published by Gill Books.

Easy 10-minute Indian Dhal

recipe by:The Happy Pear

We have cooked this dish hundreds of times, and it is always well received. It’s richly flavoured and deeply nourishing and ready in just 10 minutes.

Servings

2

Cooking Time

 10 mins

Total Time

 10 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 3 cloves of garlic

• Thumb-sized piece of ginger

• Bunch of scallions

• 1 × 400g tin of chickpeas

• 1 × 400g tin of lentils

• 10 cherry tomatoes

• 3 wholemeal pitta breads

• 1 tbsp oil

• 1 handful of baby spinach

• 1 × 400g tin of coconut milk

• 1 × 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

• 2 tbsp curry powder

• 1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce

• 1 tsp salt

• ½ tsp black pepper

• To serve

• 1 lime

• 1 fresh red chilli (optional)

• small bunch of fresh coriander or other fresh herb of choice

Method

1. Preparation: Peel and finely chop the garlic and ginger. Finely chop the scallions, removing any limp outer leaves. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and lentils. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.

2. Toast the pittas: Put the pitta breads in the toaster at max heat.

3. Cook the dhal: Heat 1 tbsp of oil for one minute in a large saucepan over a high heat. Add the garlic, ginger, and scallions and cook for one minute. Add the cherry tomatoes and cook for an additional two minutes.

4. Add the remaining ingredients: Add the chickpeas, lentils, baby spinach, coconut milk, chopped tomatoes, curry powder, tamari or soy sauce, salt, and black pepper.

5. Stir well and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for two minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat.

6. Garnish and serve: Finely chop the fresh coriander (including the stalks). Squeeze the juice of the lime over the dhal and add the coriander. Stir to combine. If desired, finely slice the chilli and sprinkle on top for added heat.

7. Cut the toasted pitta breads into soldiers (strips) and serve them on the side of your easy dhal. Enjoy!

The creamiest hummus ever

recipe by:The Happy Pear

We make literally tons of hummus every week in our factory in Pearville.

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 15 mins

Total Time

 25 mins

Course

 Side

Ingredients

• 2 × 400g tins of cooked chickpeas

• ½ tsp baking soda

• 2-3 cloves of garlic, depending on your preference

• 4 tbsp lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

• 4 tbsp tahini

• 3-4 ice cubes

• 4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to garnish

• 1½ tsp salt

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• pinch of sumac or sweet paprika, to garnish

• 1 tbsp sesame seeds, to garnish

Method

1. Prepare the chickpeas: Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add to a pot. Add the baking soda, cover the chickpeas with just-boiled water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

2. Remove the chickpea skins: Drain and rinse the cooked chickpeas. Set a small handful aside for garnish (if you’d like), then soak the rest in a large bowl filled with cold water. Try to get rid of the chickpea skins that came loose during the cooking by rubbing them together, or use a small sieve to help with this. Discard the skins.

3. Blend: Peel the garlic cloves. Add all ingredients for the hummus, except the sumac or sweet paprika and the sesame seeds, to a food processor and blend till super smooth — we recommend blending for 2–5 minutes, depending on your patience. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your palate. If it’s too strong or too thick, add a little water to thin it out.

4. Serve: Serve with a glug of olive oil and a pinch of sumac or sweet paprika and a light dusting of sesame seeds.

Easy sesame and coriander flatbreads

recipe by:The Happy Pear

These are surprisingly simple to make, and you can adapt this basic recipe to virtually any flavour you like. Here, we’ve gone with sesame and coriander but you could leave those out to make plain flatbreads.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Cooking Time

 10 mins

Total Time

 15 mins

Course

 Side

Ingredients

• 200g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting

• 150ml natural soy yogurt or coconut yoghurt

• 3 tbsp black sesame seeds

• 1 tbsp oil, plus extra for brushing

• 10g fresh coriander

• Salt

Method

1. Make the dough: In a mixing bowl, add the flour and a teaspoon of salt and stir together. Add the yogurt and mix well until it’s uniform in consistency.

2. In the bowl, knead the mixture for 5 minutes till you get a soft dough.

3. Divide and roll out: Cut your dough into 4 equal pieces.

4. Dust your work surface with flour and roll out each piece of dough to about ½cm thick.

5. Cook: Put a large pan on a high heat. Once it’s hot, reduce the heat to medium.

6. Add a sprinkle of sesame seeds and 1 tablespoon of oil (use sesame oil if you want to increase the sesame flavour), then one of the rolled-out flatbreads.

7. Cook till it starts to turn golden underneath — it may also start to form air pockets. Turn and cook on the other side till golden too.

8. Repeat with the remaining flatbreads.

9. Serve: Brush with a little oil, then sprinkle with some freshly chopped coriander and coarse sea salt for one of our favourite types of flatbreads.

Tralee Food Festival

Fancy a little jaunt to lovely Tralee? Well, here’s a good reason: The Tralee Food Festival takes place from May 16-18, championing food tourism, sustainable local produce, and the agri-food and marine industries of Kerry.

The weekend includes various events including the ‘Taste Trail’ celebrating the restaurants of Tralee, cookery demonstrations, family events and much more.

• traleefoodfestival.com

Seasonal journal

This is the very best time of the year to pick young, stingy nettles. They are popping up everywhere, not just in the countryside but in towns and cities too. Our grandparents knew their value and reminded us to eat ‘four feeds of nettles during the month of May’ to clear the blood after winter. They are a brilliant source of fibre, iron, calcium magnesium. Wear protective gloves to pick them and avoid popular dog walking paths! When cooked they lose their sting, so toss them in butter or extra virgin olive oil, add to champ, risotto, pasta sauces, pesto, quiches, and soup.