Yellow Split Pea Dal with Mango for these cold winter days — and how our website got the flu

We knew that we were having some email issues with our website, but yesterday a major component of our website support was accidentally reset, and we were out of commission for several hours. Until we were rescued by our very clever webmaster, Dr. Tran diagnosed our website as having the flu, perhaps transmitted by our recent flu post. Also, in case you were unable to access yesterday’s Inner Focus article about avoiding the common pitfall of giving up on your New Year’s resolution in the third week of January, as so many people do, here it is again. You have another chance to make a promise to yourself, examine why you didn’t stick with the plan the first time and successfully move toward your goal in 2014!!

Now that the Washington, DC area, and most of the country, have experienced at least one polar vortex, it’s time to warm up. I prepare this version of dal in the slow cooker and love to wake up or return home and smell this fragrant soup. It has been a hit time after time and requires very little preparation. I favor the taste of coriander over curry, so I often increase the coriander and decrease the curry. I also haven’t found that there’s enough difference in the taste of the spices when they’re cooked for this long to warrant toasting the spices in a pan first. I just line them all up on the counter, measure them into a small bowl, mix them up and add to the slow cooker, either when I turn on the slow cooker, if I forget to read the recipe, or after 6 hours as directed. If you’re a big fan of ginger, as I am, you can dice fresh ginger very finely as a substitute for the dried ginger and/or sprinkle it as a topping with the yogurt and mango.

Serves 6-8

SLOW COOKER – Medium or large, round or oval
SETTING AND COOK TIME – LOW for 8-10 hours

Ingredients:

2 cups dried yellow split peas, rinsed and picked over
6 ½ cups water
10 whole cloves
1 4” cinnamon stick
3 Tbsp unsalted butter (or other oil to keep it vegan)
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp brown mustard seeds
½ tsp ground coriander
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ tsp ground ginger (or about 1 Tbsp of finely chopped fresh ginger – if you’re a ginger lover)
1 large green (unripe) mango (optional), peeled pitted and chopped; can use a small amount of frozen instead)
1 ½ tsp salt, or more to taste
4 cups cooked basmati rice
1 1/2 c plain yogurt, non-dary, for serving (optional)
1 large ripe mango (abt 14 ounces) peeled, pitted, and chopped, for serving

Directions:

1. Place the split peas, water, cloves and cinnamon in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-7 hrs.
2. Remove the cloves and cinnamon stick. Add boiling water to thin if the soup is too thick.
3. In a medium skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the cumin, turmeric, mustard seeds, coriander, cayenne and ginger; cook 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly, just to heat and gently toast the spices. (Or, as above, just add the spices to the slow cooker).
4. Stir the spice mixture and green mango, if using, into the cooked dal.
5. Cover and cook on LOW 2-3 hrs longer.
6. Stir in the salt. Serve in bowls poured over the rice and top with yogurt, if using, and chopped ripe mango.