Cooking with Colm O'Gorman: A butternut squash and spinach dhal better than any takeaway 

This dish is vegetarian and perfect after the meat feast that lots of us have been enjoying over the last few weeks 

Forget the takeaway with this delicious Indian dahl. 

I have never been one for new year’s resolutions. Getting back into the swing of normal life after the holidays is enough of a chore for me without extra demands. I am most certainly not one for new-year diets, but after the excess and rich food of the holidays, I crave simpler food that is nourishing but packed full of flavour. Christmas is often a bit of a meat feast in our house, so by early January, I am craving vegetables and pulses, the sort of food that is warming and nutritious.

My mother used to make fabulous vegetarian curries, and I often hanker after those at this time of year. She would cook them in a big pressure cooker, using potatoes and carrots and whatever other vegetables she had to hand, along with gentle, warming spices, like coriander, cardamom, and cumin. She always added red lentils, so they were more like a hearty dhal than a simple vegetable curry. They were absolutely delicious. The sweetness of the root vegetables with the warm spices and the soft, comforting texture of the dhal was like a big hug in a bowl.

This week’s recipe is a homage to her cooking. This butternut squash and lentil dhal is a meal in itself, especially if you add the tempered spices as suggested. Serve it with some boiled basmati rice and a few crisp poppadoms. Or you could have it as a side dish as part of an Indian feast. It would be perfect with my lamb bhuna or my king prawn jalfrezi.

I like to use a mix of two different kinds of lentils in this dish: 125g each of yellow moong lentils and red lentils. I like the texture and vibrant colour they give with the beautiful orange squash. If you want to keep it simple, though, it is fine to use just red lentils. It will still taste delicious.

Butternut squash and spinach dahl

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

Reminiscent of my mother's vegetable curries, this is a homage to her cooking

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 35 mins

Total Time

 45 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Indian

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp rapeseed oil

• 1 medium onion

• 3 cloves garlic

• 3cm fresh ginger

• 1 red chilli

• 1 tbsp ground coriander

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• ½ tsp cayenne pepper

• 1 tsp turmeric

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tin chopped tomatoes

• 1 butternut squash

• 250g lentils, either a mix of moong and red, or just red lentils.

• 600ml vegetable or chicken stock

• 100g baby spinach

• To serve:

• Greek yoghurt

• A little olive or rapeseed oil

• ½ tsp each of cumin, fennel, and mustard seed

• 2 dried red chillies

Method

1. Start by rinsing and soaking the lentils. Just rinse them in a sieve under a running tap for a few moments before popping them into a pan and covering them with cold water. Allow them to soak while you prepare the rest of your ingredients. 

2. Peel butternut squash, discard the seeds and fibrous centre and cut the squash into three-centimetre chunks. Peel and chop the onion. Peel and grate the ginger and the garlic. Wash the chilli and remove the stalks and seeds before finely chopping it.

3. Heat the oil in a medium-sized pan over a high heat. Add the onion, lower the heat to medium, and cook it for a few minutes until the onion is soft and opaque. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another minute or so until they become fragrant. Next, add the spices, salt and chopped chilli. Stir them in well and allow them to cook for about two minutes. Keep an eye on the pan and stir regularly to stop the spices from sticking to the bottom of the pan or burning. Add a little more oil if needed.   

4. Add the chopped tomatoes and stir to combine. Cook for another few minutes and then add the butternut squash. Stir everything well to get the squash coated in the paste and cook for two to three minutes. Drain and rinse the lentils and add them to the pan along with the stock.

5. Bring the pan to a soft boil. Turn down the heat, cover the pan and simmer for thirty minutes until the squash is cooked through and the lentils are softened. Check the lentils to see if they are cooked to your liking. If you are using just red lentils, they will have become very soft by now and combined with the liquid without retaining much of their shape. If you have used a mix of moong lentils and red lentils, the moong lentils will still have a little bite which will give your dhal a little more texture.  

6. Taste and season as required. If you want a little more heat, you could add some more cayenne pepper at this stage. Just give the dhal another two to three minutes over the heat if you do add more spice. Remove the pan from the heat and just before you are ready to serve, stir in the spinach. Allow it to wilt, which will only take a minute or two and you are ready to serve.

7. I always finish off a dish like this with a dollop of Greek yoghurt and some tempered spices. This is optional, but it really adds a lot of flavour to the dhal which, if you are heaving this as your main meal, is very lovely.

8. Heat a little oil in a small pan over a high heat. Reduce the heat to medium when the oil is very hot and add two red chillies, a few fresh basil or curry leaves, and half a teaspoon each of mustard, fennel, and cumin seed. When the seeds start to pop, take them off the heat. Spoon a generous dollop of Greek yoghurt over the top of your dhal and pour the oil and tempered spices over the yoghurt.