LENTIL BALLS WITH AN INDIAN TWIST

2020-08-29 06:41:49

The Indian cuisine is, next to the Polish one, my favorite cuisine, which I got to know with great appetite. I value it especially for its aromatic spices, such as garam masala, ginger, coriander, turmeric, Indian cumin, and in particular for cardamom, which is one of my favourite spices and I often add it to spelt coffee or coffee prepared according to the five elements.

Asafetida can replace garlic and onion, which is good news for those who don't like slicing onions for obvious reasons.

I hope you will share my enthusiasm for Indian flavours. I plan to get to know better Indian cuisine and would like to create more recipes inspired by this cuisine on my blog. Besides, I plan to stock up with black cardamom at last, which I haven't had the pleasure of trying yet, unless it was a part of a dish I ordered in an Indian restaurant, but I didn't have the foggiest idea of it …

ingredients

for 4-5 people

Lentil balls:

115 g millet
140 g red lentils
1 teaspoon garam masala
a good pinch of asafetida
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Tomato chutney:

600 g tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 chili pepper (depending on the preferred spiciness)
6 cloves
1 heaped teaspoon of curry leaves
1 stick of cinnamon
1 level teaspoon Indian cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 cm ginger
1/3 teaspoon turmeric
a pinch of asafetida
rapeseed oil to fry the spices

Coconut rice with carrots:

300 g rice, e.g. brown round rice or whole grain basmati rice
3-4 carrots
10 tablespoons desiccated coconut
a good pinch of asafetida
1-2 chili peppers (depending on the preferred spiciness)
1 level teaspoon salt
rapeseed oil for frying

Fresh parsley and/or coriander for garnish

recipe

Lentil balls

Rinse the millet in a sieve with boiling water to get rid of bitterness and then cook it in salted water in the ratio of 1:2 (millet:water). Rinse the red lentils in a sieve with running water and then cook it using 250 ml water (at a very low heat, stirring from time to time and checking that the lentils do not burn). Cool down the millet and the red lentils, and then add the other ingredients. Form small balls and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake the lentil balls in the oven preheated to 170 degrees for 30 minutes. You can also fry them in a pan with oil.

Tomato chutney

Wash the tomatoes and cut them into quarters. Then blend them and put in a saucepan and add salt. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Grind the curry leaves into dust. Peel the ginger, wash it and grate with a small hole grater. Wash the chili peppers, remove the seeds and chop finely. Place the grated ginger, the chopped chili peppers and all the spices (except asafetida) in a frying pan and fry for a few minutes. Then put the spices into a saucepan with tomato sauce, add a pinch of asafetida and cook for about 15 minutes at low heat until the chutney gets a thicker consistency.

Coconut rice with carrots

Cook the rice in salted water according to the package instructions. Peel the carrots, wash them and grate with a large hole grater. Wash the chili peppers, remove the seeds and chop finely. Rinse the desiccated coconut in a sieve. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add grated carrots, chopped chili peppers and desiccated coconut. Fry them for 10 minutes. Add cooked rice, a pinch of asafetida and fry for another 5 minutes. Season with salt.

Serve the lentil balls with coconut rice, tomato chutney and chopped parsley and/or fresh coriander. I would also serve a salad of sauerkraut, which would give a little sour taste and break the sweet-spicy Indian flavours.