Ethiopian-spiced red lentils and collard greens
Red lentils cooked thick with slow-cooked onion and a warm, peppery spice blend, next to garlicky ginger collard greens, an Ethiopian-inspired plate to eat with rice.
- 55 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $1.40 a serving
- 410 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 2 yellow onions, finely chopped, divided
- 5 cloves garlic, minced, divided
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated, divided
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 cup split red lentils, rinsed
- 1 bunch collard greens
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and sliced
From your pantry
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil, divided
- 1 tbsp paprika
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- 1 pinch ground cinnamon
- 3½ cups water, divided
- 1½ tsp salt, divided
- ¼ tsp ground turmeric
Each serving has about 410 calories, 16 g protein, 48 g carbs and 19 g fat, and costs about $1.40 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Cook 1½ onions in a dry medium over medium heat, stirring, 5 minutes, until soft and starting to color.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Dolly’s tip: Starting the onions dry is the Ethiopian way. They turn sweet and jammy.Add 3 tablespoons of the oil, 3 cloves of garlic and half the fresh ginger and cook 2 minutes.
Medium heat
Stir in the paprika, cayenne, coriander, cumin, ground ginger, cinnamon and tomato paste and cook 1 minute, until dark and .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: If it starts to stick, add a splash of water and keep stirring.Add the lentils, 3 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt and 20 minutes, stirring often, until thick and the lentils have .
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Low heatTimer: 20 min
Dolly’s tip: Stir more as it thickens. Red lentils like to catch on the bottom.Meanwhile, strip the collard leaves off the stems and them into thin ribbons.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Heat the last 2 tablespoons oil in a large over medium heat and cook the rest of the onion 3 minutes. Add the remaining garlic and ginger, the turmeric and jalapeño for 1 minute.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium heatTimer: 3 min
Add the collards, ½ cup water and ½ teaspoon salt, cover, and cook 12 to 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until tender.
Medium heatTimer: 13 min
Taste both for salt and serve the lentils and greens side by side, with rice if you have some.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
