Banff and yellow dal

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Hello, I am in Banff doing a retreat at the Banff Centre for the Arts. I am convinced that this place is paradise. They have an incredible dining room with a buffet, a pool and fitness centre and lots of artistic activities. Plus it’s on a gorgeous campus. I am in love.

But that doesn’t mean that I’ve forgotten my weekly pulse recipe. Last week, I made dal. If you read a lot of veggie cookbooks (I do), you will see many recipes for dal. I have made one recipe years ago, but I wanted to play around with split peas, so I tried this recipe from Happy Herbivore. (I’m a little obsessed with both the Happy Herbivore cookbooks and her website, http://www.happyherbivore.com). Lindsay Nixon cooks low-fat, plant based food and she doesn’t use nuts except for the odd bit of peanut butter. As I have a nut allergy, this means her cookbooks are a blessing for me, and I don’t have to roll my eyes at another recipe that includes cashew cream.

I think this was only my second time cooking yellow peas. I cooked them way longer than the recipe called for, because I wanted them to be a little softer.

Yellow Dal
Makes 2 cups

1 cup dried yellow split peas
1 tsp garam masala (you should be able to find this is any grocery store. It’s a mix of Indian spices.)

½ prepared yellow mustard
½ turmeric
½ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ to ½ tsp cayenne powder or hot sauce
salt to taste

1. Bring 2 cups of water to boil.
2. Add remaining ingredients except salt and reduce heat to low.
3. Cover and simmer for thirty minutes, or until most if not all of the water has been absorbed and the yellow split peas are soft and not mushy. (I wanted mine soft, so I cooked them for an hour)
4. Add 1 to 4 tbsp more water so the mixture is a little wet. (I didn’t have to)
5. Add salt.

Very spicy and filling. I paired it with brown rice and sautéed chard to make a kind of rice bowl.

In another news, I should add that yellow pea acres are up this year in Alberta. India is having a drought, so Albertan farmers are growing yellow peas and red lentils. And because there is such a demand, the prices that they are getting for these crops are sky high! My farmer friend Allison has said that I can go visit her in at her farm, and take pictures of her crops, so you can look forward to that.

Right now I can look forward to writing at the Banff Centre, seeing Zadie Smith and my relatives on Thursday, and going to see Beyonce in May. (My friend Ashley scored tickets)

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