Recipe: Elizabeth Alexander's Spicy Red Lentil and Tomato Curry

A recipe from Elizabeth Alexander's memoir The Light of the World

Spicy Red Lentil and Tomato Curry

Author: Ficre

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 4 hours 20 minutes

Total time: 4 hours 35 minutes

Serves 4-6

Don’t be scared off by the long cook time—for the most part, once you’ve taken care of the chopping, all you’ll need to do is check on the is dish occasionally as it simmers. To cut down on cook time, you can also use store-bought vegetable stock rather than making your own (you will need 2-3 cups). A note on tomato passata: although it isn’t incredibly common in the United States I’ve found it at Whole Foods and another grocery store in the area. It’s a tomato purée similar to tomato paste and tomato sauce—the main differences are that the tomatoes in the purée are uncooked, with no additional ingredients added, and it’s not cooked down like tomato paste. If you can’t find it, you can certainly substitute tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes for a slightly different flavor.

Ingredients:

For the Stock:

2 heads fennel

2 heads kale

1 yellow onion, cut into large pieces

2 large carrots, cut into large pieces

1 stalk celery, cut into large pieces

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped 

For the Tomato Curry Sauce

24 oz can tomato passata

2 carrots, chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 Tablespoons curry powder

½ teaspoon cayenne

½ teaspoon paprika

2 Cup dry red lentils

¼ Cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Salt to taste

Directions:

1. In a large heavy pot, combine the first 6 ingredients and enough water to over the vegetables by about a half inch. Allow stock to simmer for 4 hours

2. After the stock has been simmering for about an hour, you’ll want to start making the tomato curry sauce. Combine the tomato passata, 2 chopped carrots, 3 cloves chopped garlic, and the spices in another large heavy pot and allow to simmer for 3 hours.

3. Add lentils to tomato curry sauce and let simmer 20-30 minutes more, adding stock as need tot thin it out (about 2-3 cups). The mixture should be thick and creamy, not soupy or dry

4. Stir in fresh cilantro and remove the heat. Season with salt to taste. Serve lentils alongside basmati rice.

Recipes from THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD by Elizabeth Alexander. Copyright © 2015 by Elizabeth Alexander. Used with permission by Grand Central Publishing. All rights reserved.