Masoor Daal Mix

My daughter has this weird obsession with rice. She loves it. Every time she sees me going into the kitchen to cook dinner she yells 'A rice! A rice!' in hopes that it's what I'm making. In the past few weeks I've been making us a pot of basmati rice every day at lunch time, but wanting her to eat something a little more substantial than that I've been topping it with a pouch of microwaveable daal. That baby loves her curries, but I realized for a daily habit that $2.69 a pouch was a little expensive for something that can be made for pennies. So inspiration hit....

Masoor Daal Mix (single use- makes enough for 2 large servings)

1/2 cup red lentils
1 1/2 teaspoons dried onion flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1/4 teaspoon dried garlic flakes
1/8 teaspoon cardamom powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

What else you'll need

2 cups water
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste

I use tomato paste in a tube which is double strength so I used only half a tablespoon. The kind in a tube is great for when you only need a little bit and don't want to open a whole can.

Combined the mix, water, oil and tomato paste in a small sauce pan and stir. Simmer the mixture for about 20 minutes until lentils are tender and mixture thickens. Serve with basmati rice.

My daughter and I both gobbled it up. I will be making this again soon! I might even experiment with a microwavable version in the near future.