Dal bhat

Ingredients

Quantities for 4 servings.

• 250 g Yellow lentils
• 400 g Rice
• 1 tsp Turmeric
• 3 tbsp Ghee
• 1 tsp Ajwain seeds
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds
• 2 piece Dried chillies
• 4 clove Garlic
• 500 g Potato and cauliflower
• 1 piece Onion
• 200 g Spinach or mustard greens
• to taste Salt

Method

1. Rinse the lentils and boil them in a litre of water with the turmeric for thirty minutes, until they collapse completely. Skim for the first five minutes.
2. Start the rice. While it cooks, fry the onion, add the potato and cauliflower with a little turmeric and water, and cook fifteen minutes: that is the tarkari.
3. Fry the greens with garlic over a high flame for two minutes; they should stay bright.
4. For the jhaneko, heat the ghee and throw in the ajwain, cumin, dried chilli and garlic, frying twenty seconds to the smell.
5. Pour the sizzling spiced fat straight into the dal — it hisses. Stir, season and serve at once.
6. Build the plate: rice in the middle, dal in a small bowl, tarkari and greens around it, achar at the edge.