Receta Mango Lentil Curry
When we lived in Charlotte we would go out to eat Indian food quite regularly. The Omnivore always played it safe and ordered butter chicken or chicken tikka masala, but I always dabbled in the curries. One of my favorite dishes to order was the mango curry – for some reason I felt I never could approximate it at home (one of my criteria for ordering off restaurant menus).
Now that we’ve moved away from Charlotte to an extremely small town where there are no restaurants – or Indian restaurants – figuring out how to recreate dishes I loved from our past becomes a challenge worthy of taking.
Janet at The Taste Space is a loyal commenter on my blog. One morning while I was ditching out on my 5:30am run I started perusing her posts and ran into a recipe for Mango Curry. Her recipe uses split peas – which would be great, but I only had lentils on hand so that’s what I used, and also calls for making a homemade peanutty spice blend.
I used store bought garam masala instead of making the spice blend and we loved the results. This was one of those meals that I couldn’t reveal to my husband what was in it until after dinner. He loved the flavor, but had no idea it was derived from mangoes. He would have cringed at the title, and you might, too, but I encourage you to give it a try.
Lentil Mango Curry (inspired by the The Taste Space)
Ingredients
- 1 cup lentils, washed and picked over
- 1 medium-sized firm, ripe mangoes, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
Instructions
Heat the oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add onion and saute for about 3-4 minutes, until beginning to tenderize. Add garam masala, cumin, turmeric, and salt. Cook 2-3 minutes.
Add 3 cups water and 1 cup lentils and bring mixture to a bowl.
Remove and discard any scum that forms.
Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes until the lentils are mostly tender.
Add the mango, chopped cilantro, and an additional 1 cup of water to the lentils. Cover pot and simmer for an additional 30-40 minutes, until the lentils are very tender.
Partially mash the lentils if desired. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 30 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4