Joshua’s Indian/ Eritrean inspired lentils.

1 Cup of red lentils

1 large yellow onion

2-6 cloves of Garlic (I like Garlic, but you may not.)

1 stick of butter

½ cup of Half and Half or Coconut milk.

1-2 teaspoons of some sort of chili powder or more to taste. ( I use Eritrean Berbere, but Kashmiri Chili is
nice too.)

½ Teaspoon of Cumin seeds.

Salt. Yeah, I do not know how much. Not too much.

2 table spoons of Olive oil

2 teaspoons of Curry powder/ a mixture of spices that you like. I started with Madras Curry Powder
which you can buy in the store or on amazon and is great.

I can of diced Tomatoes or 2-3 cups of freshly diced tomatoes.

Optional

A little bit of grated Ginger.

1 can of tomato paste.

Add the one cup of Red Lentils to more water than you think you will need and bring to a boil. (add ½
teaspoon of Turmeric if you like.) as it cooks, skim the foam off the top with a spoon. This all should cook
for a bit. Depends on how broken down you like your lentils. I just keep checking…

About ten minutes into your lentils boiling add your Olive oil to a heavy bottomed container. (I like my
French oven, but have made this in a skillet too. )

As that warms up dice your onion up and peal and dice your Garlic.

Add Cumin seeds to the oil, then when you can smell them, add the onion and garlic as well. Add salt. I
like to cook my onions until I get a fond going on the pan.

When your onions are how you like them, (regardless they will cook down more) add your spices and let
them soak in a bit.

At this point add your can or diced tomatoes and the tomato paste if that is your thing. This will deglaze
the pan a bit too if you were worried. Let it cook down a bit.

At this point add your lentils to the mix with the water you were cooking them in. Bring to a boil, and
then simmer.
When it is all starting to form a wonderful mix, I add the butter and Half and Half/ heavy Cream/
Coconut milk.

At this point it really is about your own taste. I like it all cooked down and broken up, but that isn’t
everyone’s bag.

I serve with Rice, or in a tortilla as a taco with other fixing. Try with baked squash. It is so choice.