I wish I had known about this recipe when my friends were here over New Year and we had curries for dinner one night – I think they would have liked it. Oh well, I will be sure to make it next time they come.

It is based on a version by Nigel Slater. He calls it ‘spiced lentils’ – I call it lentil curry.

You can’t have too many recipes for lentil curry I think. I really like this recipe for daal Makhani – but this one is a good substitute for those bleak days when you realise you don’t have any cream.

Lentil Curry: 250g brown or green lentils, some fresh ginger, 4 cloves garlic 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp ground coriander, 3 tsp garam masala, a dried red chilli, 1 tsp turmeric, 2 onions, some frozen tomatoes (or a tin), rapeseed oil.

Cook the lentils in a pan of water for 20-25 minutes, Put one onion  (chopped), the peeled and chopped ginger, the garlic, spices and some oil in a food processor and whizz to make a paste – I added some water to loosen this. Slice the other onion and fry gently in some oil in a saucepan. Add the spice paste and fry for a little bit. add in the tomatoes and a little water – cook it down for a while. When you have a nice looking sauce, add the lentils and cook some more. Take out about a third of the mixture and blitz it in the food processor – add back to the pot. Season to taste.

This is unbelievably delicious.

We had it with labne (made by straining some of Iggy Pop’s yoghurt) mixed with some cucumber our friends left when they came to stay – yay for friends and winter cucumber from the shop!

I also made naan bread instead of my usual pita bread to go with it – this was gorgeous, but that is for another post.