Pumpkin Dhal

After running my first half marathon yesterday, I'm definitely in need of some filling comfort food. I was absolutely stoked with my time of 1 hour, 50 minutes, given that I was hoping for 2 hours. All that energy I've used is making me hungry!

Although today was a lovely sunny day, it was still pretty cool if you weren't in the sun and it gets rather chilly when the sun goes down.

A big bowl of something warm and comforting was on the cards. I have the last of our homegrown pumpkin sitting in the fridge and wanted to make something to use it up. I made pumpkin soup last week and didn't really want risotto, so decided to make an Indian inspired dhal. I've made this recipe before with spinach, and it was great, so I figured that pumpkin would work equally as well with the spices and flavours.

This is a really simple, but tasty, dish. Perfect for when you want something quickly that's going to fill you up and keep you satisfied. Hearty comfort food at it's best!

It tastes even better the next day too, so make up a double batch and have some now and some later in the week. Otherwise, you could freeze some to eat on a night when you can't be bothered cooking. Just make the spiced oil fresh to drizzle over the top.

I served my dhal with naan bread, but you could use papadums too.

Pumpkin Dahl

300g yellow split peas
2 tsp brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp ground turmeric

3cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated (or 2 heaped teaspoon of the jarred stuff)

3/4 tsp ground cumin

1kg pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed and diced (you want about 750g flesh)

Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste (you'll need about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tsp mustard seeds

2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 long red chilli, halved, seeds removed and thinly sliced

Rinse the split peas in a colander, place in a bowl and cover with water. Allow to soak for about 1 hour and then drain and rinse again.

Put 6 cups of water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil.

Add the split peas, sugar, turmeric, ginger, cumin and pumpkin. Simmer for about 30 mins or until the pumpkin is soft and the split peas are tender.

Remove from the heat and stir through the lime juice.

In a small fry pan, heat the oil and fry the mustard seeds until they start to pop. Remove from the heat and add the garlic and chilli to the hot oil. Stir to combine and to stop the garlic from burning.

Serve the dhal in bowls and spoon over some of the spiced oil.

Enjoy as is, or serve with papadums or naan to scoop up.