QUICK & EASY DHANSAK CURRY RECIPE

One of our favourite takeaway meals is a dhansak curry. Today we decided to have a go at making it for the first time. The result was a very fresh tasting spicy curry that tasted… very similar to our    takeaway.
Curries and weightloss - they do mix.
We love the simplicity of this recipe without the need to use a million different ingredients to achieve a satisfying meal. The beauty of this curry sauce is that you can make it and add whatever protein or vegetable you like to it. 

We chose king prawns as a treat. You can stir in some fresh spinach at the end too if you like. Obviously using lentils gives it a healthy twist - and not only that it's a tasty way to eat them! The calories were good too - this dish worked out (excluding rice) at around 350 calories. Who would have thought that curry was this low in calories! Here's how we made it:

DHANSAK CURRY SAUCE

Ingredients - makes 6-8 portions of curry sauce 

150g red lentils

2 onions

2 cloves garlic

2cm fresh grated ginger

1 whole red chilli, chopped

1 large tin chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tbsp mild curry powder

227g (small tin) of pineapple rings or chunks in juice - optional (see below)

700ml chicken or vegetable stock

salt/pepper
teaspoon sugar
tablespoon lemon juice

oil for frying

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Slice the onions and fry until soft and translucent.

Add the chopped garlic, grated ginger and chopped chilli to the onions. Stir.

Add the garam masala and curry powder. Cook for one minute.

Add chopped tomatoes and cook for a further 5 minutes. 

Blend the mixture.

Now add the chicken or vegetable stock. Cook gently for 15 minutes while you cook the lentils.

Bring lentils to the boil in a separate pan and boil for 15 minutes, as you need to boil lentils vigorously.

Add lentils to curry base.

Cook for another 10 minutes. To give the dish its sweet and sour flavour you'll need to add around a teaspoon of sugar (sweet) and up to a tablespoon of lemon juice (sour). Keep tasting and adjust the sugar and lemon until you get the right balance of flavour. Alternatively you can add some pineapple juice as a lot of curry houses do add this.

You now have your base curry sauce - at least 6 portions of it. Don't forget to season with salt and pepper - make sure you taste, as the salt can intensify the flavour and heat of the chilli.

For our meal here, we spooned out a couple of portions of the curry sauce and added our protein - raw king prawns and cooked for 5 minutes. You could use ready cooked prawns. Alternatively you can use chicken.

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