Butternut squash and spinach dahl

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.