You might have eaten lentil soup or even lentil patty in a burger. But have you ever eater curry with lentil patty? Yes, today I will write a hearty, warm and delicious recipe of lentil patty curry. When you bored of lentil soup (daal) or stir fried veggies, you can make this fantastic combination of lentil patty and vegetables.

You can take vegetables of your choice but I think that lentil patty goes best with potatoes and cauliflower. I have used few potatoes and half of cauliflower (depends on how much you want to make) and all the spices that I use for normal curry. The specialty here is that I have used whole nigella seeds (Kalo jeera) to enhance flavour as I did not use any onions here. However, you are welcome to use onions.

As a first step, you have to wash lentils 4-5 times and soak them in lukewarm water for about an hour. It has to be as soft as you can break them with you nail. I have used red lentils (Lens culinaris) but I am sure you can use muug daal or other kinds of lentils for making this curry.

After soaking them in water for an hour, you drain the soaked lentils. They have to be course blended so they can give some texture. Before blending, add little salt and turmeric powder. Turmeric powder will add a nice yellow tint.

Take a non stick pan where you gonna cook the whole curry and heat oil in medium temperature. When heated, scoop lentils in small patty size and fry them in oil. I have used a spoon to avoid messiness but normally its done with your palm. I am not that expert and I would make different sizes so I have used a small spoon to scoop.

The patties don’t need to be deep fried. You can use half of the oil that I have. They just need to be fried enough to get the crunchiness and the color and don’t need to be fully cooked. Flip patties when one side is done. When both sides are done, take them out from oil and keep them in a bowl.

Meanwhile, I cut veggies and prepped them in my preferred sizes. In the same pan, after you are done with frying lentil patties, add cauliflowers to fry. Be aware that cauliflower tends to spill oil if they have water left inside. So dry them very well before frying. Also I did not add any spices while frying, but just salt, as dry spices tends to get burned easily and will make the oil discoloured.

In the same way, fry potatoes without any spices but salt and set them aside when they are nice and roasted. You don’t need to cook them completely yet.

After veggies are done with frying, add nigella seeds, dry chili and one bay leaf in the same pan. You can oil if needed but I did not, as veggies and lentil patties soaked in enough oil and they will release oil while cooking.

When nigella seeds starts popping, add ginger paste and all the dry spices – turmeric, chili, coriander and cumin powder to oil. To give you a tips I would say, keep the temperature in low to medium, as powder spices get burned very quick.

After a few seconds of sizzling spices, add little bit of water. This step we call as Koshano or cooking spices with water. This step helps removing the raw taste of spices. But do not add a lot of water as it will take long time. Just enough so its done in koshano in two minutes.

When do you know its done – when you see the oils are getting separated from the spices (picture 2),then you know the spices are cooked.

Now add the half fried potatoes to the spices. Give it a little stir to mix potatoes with spices well. Then add dash of water to cook potatoes.

When you see that potatoes are cooked and soaked in most of the water, then add all the veggies and lentil patties that were set aside. Add just enough water to cook veggies but also be careful not to add too much water, as veggies will loose the texture. I have added green chili for flavor, but you can of course skip if you don’t like it spicy. Cover the pan and cook them.

Let the veggies cook in medium to high heat for about 6-8 minutes. You will see that the color changes then you know that veggies are cooked! When to the end, garnish with green coriander leaves if you like them.

This is the final look and I am sure that it looks very tempting to you as well. Plus you can use any veggies you like – beans, tomato, sweet potatoes and they go perfectly with lentil patty. It is like making yourself a fancy vegan treat with simple ingredients you have in the kitchen! Happy eating!

Recipe: 5-6 Serving Prepping time: 1 hour, Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients: Vegetables Half of a big head of Cauliflower 2-3 medium Potatoes 250g Red Lentil or Moshur Daal Spice and Condiments 100ml Vegetable Oil 1tsp Nigella Seeds 1-2 Bay leaves 2-3 Dry Red Chili 2-3 Green Chili 3tbs fine Salt 1tsp Turmeric powder 1tsp Coriander powder 1tsp Cumin powder 1tsp Chili powder 1tsp Ginger Paste (or Ginger powder) Fresh Coriander leaves to taste

Instruction 1. Wash cauliflower and pat them dry. Cut into medium florets. Cut potatoes in wedges. 2. Wash lentils 5-6 times, and soak them in lukewarm water for 1 hour. After 1 hour, drain them and blend lentil to a course paste with 1/2 tsp salt and turmeric powder. 3. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. Scoop lentil paste with a help of spoon and fry them as a small bite size patty. When both sides are fried, set them aside. 4. Shallow fry cauliflower until they are golden. Set them aside. Same way, fry potatoes. 5. In the same pan, add nigella seeds, dry chili and bay leaves. When they starts popping, add all dry spices and ginger paste. Add a dash of water and cook in low heat until they release oil. 6. Add shallow fried potatoes, coat them well with spices and cook for about 2 minutes. Add 50ml water to cook potatoes. 7. When potatoes are cooked, add cauliflower, green chili and lentil patties. Add 100ml or just enough water to cover the veggies. Cook for 10-15 minutes with lid on low-medium heat and check them once in a while but do not stir them, as cauliflowers break very easily. Check salt and add more if needed. 7. When the curry gravy is at your desired consistency, turn off heat and serve in bowl! Optionally add fresh coriander leaves as garnish! Serve with rice, flat bread, naan bread or toast!