Fancy some dhal this evening, anyone got an easy recipe?
I’ve got:
Brown Lentils
Onions
Garlic
Ground ginger
Paprika
Cummin
Chillies

Should I just bung it all in together, or cook the spices onto the onions first?
Had a look on google, and all the recipes need much more ingredients.

Could easily get away with that lot. I’d boil the lentils with some garlic, chillies, and a bit of the paprika (some tumeric as well if you have some knocking about). Then to make a tadka with the rest just fry (in plenty of oil)the onions, more garlic and chillies, ginger (not loads), cumin and paprika. Drain lentils, put in a bowl, and spoon the tadka over them. Done.

i would cook the lentils seperately and first
You have enough spices IMHO
I would dry fry the spices (or with a bit of oil) then add the onions and fry till they were cooked – low ish heat 10-15 mins and then add the lentils and mix
If you have enough onions top the dhal with crispy fried ones in smallish pieces.

I’d leave aside the paprika, onions & ginger.

Cup of lentils, wash well, bring to boil in plenty of water, clean off the scum that’ll rise to the surface then add a good half teaspoon of tumeric. When the lentils are cooked add some salt & the tarka.

Given what you have there i’d use the following tarka …

Heat a small iron frying pan or saucepan & add a couple of tablespoons of oil. Test the oil heat with a few cumin seeds. When they sizzle, add a teaspoon & a half of cumin seeds. If the chillies are dried red ones, add those now. Fry until the cumin darkens. If the chillies are fresh green ones, add a couple of those with lengthwise slits in them now. (If you have any red chilli powder, half a teaspoon of that goes well here). After 30 secs or so, add 3 cloves of finely chopped garlic & fry until that lightly browns. Pour contents of pan onto lentils & cover for 5 mins.

Easiest:

Cook some red lentils

Get a frying pan. Fry some chopped onions. Add a tsp or two of PAtaks Madras Curry Paste. Fry, add drained lentils. Season. Easy peasy.

Another easy one is simply some red kidney beans mashed lightly with some lemon, curry paste, single cream and garam masala.

Real Curry Reciepes is where you want

Thanks for the advice, ended up using a combination of the suggestions above.
Boiled the lentils with onion and garlic.
Fried the spices in oil.
Added the oily spices to the cooked lentil mixture.
Yum! Very welcome after a hard spin through the mud yesterday afternoon

Drac, that forum is fantastic, what a great resource.

More authentic Indian than a lot of recipe sites, vahchef has some great videos he’s done & some good contributed text recipes. (The videos are also on youtube – search for vahchef).