GOLDEN ADAPTOGENIC ASHWAGANDHA DAL (LENTIL CURRY) WITH TEMPERED SPICES IN GRASS-FED BEEF BONE BROTH
Meet your new best friend: golden ashwagandha dal (lentil curry). Full of warming, punchy spices, cozy, incredibly delicious, and packed with deeply nourishing anti-inflammatory ingredients: a total cold weather cooking staple.
First, make the curry paste. Place all the curry ingredients into a food processor: lime, ginger, garlic, chili, cumin, curry leaves, lemongrass, shredded coconut, sea salt, and black pepper. Add 1/2 cup of water to thin it out. Blend the mixture for a few minutes until you get a paste-like consistency, stopping every so often to scrape down the sides. Add a few more splashes of water if needed to get your desired consistency. Transfer the finished curry paste to a small bowl, and set aside.
Make the dal (lentil curry). Heat the coconut oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes.
Add in all of the curry paste and continue to stir to evenly coat the onions with it. Stir until the spices are fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add the ashwagandha, tamari, maple syrup, tamarind, tomato, green beans and red lentils, and stir to coat them evenly with the oil and spices. Scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. Pour in the bone broth, and give it a few more stirs to combine.
Cover the pot with a lid and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and and cook the stew, covered for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are cooked through.
Meanwhile, temper your spice toppings. In a small sauté pan over medium-high heat, heat up the coconut oil. Lower the heat to medium-low once it starts shimmering. Add the Kashmiri chili, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, and curry leaves. Let them sit in the hot oil for about a minute, keeping a close eye on them to ensure they don't burn. Once the seeds are fragrant and popping, remove from heat and immediately set the pan aside to avoid burning the spices.
By now, your dal should be simmering and considerably cooled down. Remove the pot from heat. Whisk the dal vigorously to encourage further breaking down of the lentils. Add in the miso paste, coconut butter and chopped kale, and stir to combine until the kale starts to wilt from the residual cooking heat.
Gently spoon the tempered spices and oil on top of the dal. You can lightly stir it in, if you like. You can also portion out the dal into serving bowls and then garnish the tempered spices on top, if you like. Garnish the dal with fresh cilantro. Serve it hot with lemon wedges and your favourite toppings.
Notes
Make sure to add in the miso paste once the dal has considerably cooled down. Too hot and you'll kill the beneficial enzymes in the miso.
You don't need a lot of oil for spice tempering: one or two tablespoons is plenty. Just make sure not to temper them for too long as they burn quickly. Ideally, use a high smoke point oil, such as coconut oil, grass-fed ghee, or organic tallow.
The key to proper spice tempering is temperature control. Burnt spices will ruin your entire dish! You'll know when they're ready once the seeds start popping or the spices have changed colour. It should only take a few seconds.
Don't temper fresh herbs—use them directly as a garnish instead.
Soak your lentils beforehand! I'm serious. If you want to get the most out of your lentils, simply soak the desired amount of dry lentils, submerged in a bowl of filtered water on the counter for approximately 12-24 hours. Then when you're ready to cook with them, simply drain and rinse one more time before using. Soaking and sprouting was a common ancestral practice that vastly improves the digestibility and nutrient bioavailability of lentils, pulses, and beans in general.