Tag: #onceaweekcooking

Pre-cooking Lentils…
Alliyah Dawud
August 2, 2019

Why I pre-cook and freeze gram lentils….

I love cooking however I don’t always have time to leisurely cook and that’s where my kitchen short cuts come in.

I use gram lentils quite a bit. They are the base ingredient of vegetarian kebabs, Pakistani Bun kebab and also my favourite spinach and gram lentil curry. But I’ll be honest with you. I dislike having to watch food simmer on the stove for hours. It’s just not in my nature. I’ll happily place something in the oven and leave it for hours but on the stove? Nope. Just not happening.

I discovered a while ago that you can pre-cook and then FREEZE gram lentils to create meals that slash the time on stove top simmering. A revolution!

Since then I boil approximately 900 grams of Gram Lentils in my rather large Slow Cooker on high for a good few hours (mine took 5 hours to cook to the tenderness level I required), cool then and then freeze them up in portion sizes I know I will use.

I also do this with green lentils (for my tacos). If a lentil is going to take hours I’d rather go through the pain of pre-boiling in a slow cooker, cooling and freezing instead.

So here is my method:

1) I wash the lentils and then soak them for around a hour.

2) I place them in the slow cooker to boil HOWEVER I add the following ingredients to my 900 grams of lentils for a bit of flavour penitration. Here’s my recipe:

900 grams Gram Lentil
As much water as you can add to the slow cooker. If you find your slow cooker is on the small side boil half the amount of daal. Simples.
1 onion-halved
1 large piece of ginger-whole (skin can be kept on)
4 whole cloves of garlic peeled only
Salt-to your own taste
1 TBSP chili powder OR 5 dried red chilies
1 TBSP turmeric (Haldi)

2) Place all the ingredients in the Slow Cooker and turn to high. Check on your lentils every hour or so and give them a stir.
3) After a few hours your Lentils will be tender. I don’t let the lentils turn to ‘mush’ and leave a little bit to allow me to ‘cook them out’ when I use them on the stove.
4) Drain the lentils (because if you leave them in the Cooker they will cook further) and allow to cool. Fish out the garlic, ginger and onion. Throw them away.
5) Decant the lentils into suitable freezer bags (or containers), label and freeze!
6) To defrost: you can do this in the Microwave or leave the bag overnight in the Fridge.

Enjoy.

Meat Free Monday Curry….
Stylemesisteradmin
July 22, 2019

Meat free Monday

My Fast Spinach Curry

Growing up with Popeye it took me a while to acknowledge that large doses of leafy greens did not automatically equate to biceps that would make Dwayne Johnson jealous. Lucky for me though I’m a patient type of chick and I’m steadily changing my body to look the way I want (muscles and all).

This is a super quick curry that I really love. I’ll be honest. The portion sizes here are 250 grams each and feel it’s worth having a larger portion as spinach wilts down a lot.

Like I said it’s quick and actually easy to get onto the table. I use pre-fried onions and frozen spinach….and well the lack of fresh stuff means the food is quick to get on the table. Result!

Of course you can use fresh onions and spinach and adjust amounts and cooking time to reflect this. But like I always say my Meat free Monday recipes are designed for speedy Monday meals.

To make two portions of this amazing curry you will need:

500 grams frozen spinach defrosted and drained
2 TBSP oil
4 TBSP pre-fried onions soaked and drained
1 heaped TBSP garlic paste
1 heaped TBSP ground coriander seeds
1 heaped TBSP ground cumin seeds
1 TSP chili powder
Cooking salt-to your own taste
150 ml (and a bit more just in case) water
Juice of one lemon

1) Heat the oil in a large pan on a medium heat.
2) Add the onions and fry for about one minute stirring well to ensure it doesn’t catch/stick or burn. If you find the mixture is sticking too much just add 2 TBSP of water.
3) Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
4) Now add the salt and spices. Fry for about one minute to cook out the spices. Keep stirring though. No one likes a curry tinted with burnt spices.
5) Add the spinach. Stir well to coat the spinach in the spicy mixture. Fry the spinach for 5-6 minutes.
6) Turn the heat off; your curry is done.
7) Before you serve the curry add the lemon juice.

Enjoy