Lentils or Daal goes well with anything, and combining them with variations of greens makes a perfect healthy dinner. The cumin and coriander add a gentle spicy note to this recipe, makes it a nice comfort food on a cool day. Another plus is the high protein content. This recipe can be frozen up to 3 days.
Serves: 8
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish
- 2 large yellow onions, chopped
- 1 ¼ teaspoons salt, divided
- 2 tablespoons plus 4 cups water, divided
- 1 cup lentils
- 8 large green chard leaves
- 1 medium potato, scrubbed
- 12 cups gently packed spinach
- 4 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 5 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups chopped broccoli
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- ½ tablespoon ground coriander
- Pepper to taste
- 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
- ½ jalapeno pepper, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or more to taste
Directions:
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add onions and ¼ teaspoon salt; cook, stirring frequently, until the onions begin to brown. Reduce the heat, add 2 tablespoons water and cover. Cook, stirring frequently until the pan cools down until the onions are greatly reduced and have a deep caramel color
- In the mean time, rinse lentils. Combine the lentils with remaining 4 cups water in a soup pot or Dutch oven, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes. Trim the white ribs out of the chard, chop the greens and slice the ribs. Cut potato into ½ inch dice, and chop spinach; set aside.
- When the lentils have cooked for around 20 minutes, stir in the chard ribs, potato, scallions, broth and the remaining salt. Cover the pot and cook for 15 minutes.
- Stir in the chard leaves, broccoli, cumin and coriander. When the onions are caramelized, stir a little of the simmering liquid into them, add them to the soup. Return to a simmer, cover and cook 5 minutes more. Stir in the reserved spinach, cilantro, mint, jalapeno, and pepper; return to a simmer, cover and cook until the spinach is tender. Stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice.
- Remove from the heat. This recipe can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
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