Spiced Lentils with Spinach and Apples and Indian Pulan

This is a delicious recipe (or, rather two recipes that I am combining so you can cook both at once a bit easier because they compliment each other so well) that is (are) time and chopping intensive but super fun! It took about an hour and a half from start to finish so if you have that amount of time and find cooking things relaxing (which is maybe why you are here?) you can make this and relax by the warm, spicy stove.

First you chop so many things into very small pieces! Like 2 cups of onion, 2 stalks of celery, 1 tbsp of ginger, 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 lb fresh spinach, and 2 tart apples for the first dish (lentils) and 1 cup chopped onion, 1 tbsp of ginger, 3 carrots, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 bell pepper for the second (pulan). Also, put 2 cups rice on to cook (this is especially nice if you have a rice cooker. Get one, you can ignore it completely!).

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30 min. pass and everything is chopped! Hooray! I promise you will be so happy you did this step all at once later.



Now, put 2 cups of dried lentils and 5 cups of water in a big saucepan, bring it to a boil and then simmer it for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, you wanna get two skillets out and put a tbsp of oil and a tbsp on butter in each (mine were the same size, but for you one can be a bit smaller because I will be referring to them as "big" and "small" - big is for pulan and small is for lentils, if you just wanna make one of the dishes). When everything is nice and hot and melted, put the 2 cups of onion in the smaller skillet and the 1 cup of onion in the larger along with the 1 tbsp ginger, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp turmeric, 2 tsp coriander (in the larger). Saute the onions in the smaller skillet for about 10 minutes, and the onions and spices in the larger for 5-8, adding a bit of water to the large skillet to avoid sticking.



Add the celery, 1 tsp cumin, 2 tbsp dry mustard, 1 tbsp ginger, 1 tsp coriander, and 1/2 tsp turmeric to the small skillet and let it cook for 10 minutes or until the celery is tender. Put the carrots and 2 cloves of garlic into the big skillet and let that cook for 5 minutes, then add the bell pepper, cover it, and let it cook for five minutes more.

While you are waiting, stick a tray in the oven with shredded coconut and almond slivers on it (a cup of each). Keep an eye on it! 10 minutes at 350 degrees is plenty.

Back to the skillets! Scrape the contents of the small skillet into the saucepan of lentils along with 3 tbsp lemon juice and 3 cloves of garlic. Still it all together and let it all simmer 10 more minutes. As for the larger skillet, add 1/2 cup raisins and the cooked rice. Turn the heat all the way down and cover until you finish up the lentils.

The larger skillet:

Back to the lentil saucepan! Add some salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste, along with the chopped spinach and apple bits. Let it cook just a few minutes longer until everything gets soft and nice. You can put your toasted coconut and almonds on the rice dish while this is going on.

Here's the lentils finishing up:

Now eat it all! Hooray! Robbie and Jessica and quite excited for dinner!



Also, Robbie made chocolate chip snicker-doodle cookies for dessert! What!? Bridget couldn't eat them fast enough, we needed to help her.



Here are more pictures of our dinnertime, courtesy of Bridget!



I am astounded by the dinner topics we cover! Palace intrigue!



Eve is pretty!



Eve has found something of Utmost Importance in the paper!



Robbie is pensive.



Bridget is also pretty!

The End!