Mung Bean Lentils with Peas

Koraishuti Diye Kacha Mooger Dal

Lentils are an essential part of any Bengali meal. They're kind of boring on their own, so adding a simple vegetable like green peas to mung bean lentils takes it out of the ordinary into the extraordinary, especially when accompanied by chopped tomatoes and ginger. On a cold winter's day when everything outside is blanketed in snow, there is no other comfort food like a bowl of steaming lentils over a mound of rice.

I generally cook red and mung bean lentils on the back burner over a low flame while the burners in front are being used to cook the rest of the meal. It's easier to cook lentils in a pressure cooker, but they tend to turn to mush whereas stovetop cooking produces a more al dente texture with more of a bite. 

These mung bean lentils have not been toasted which is my preferred way of cooking them with vegetables. When fish heads are added to mung beans, I like to toast them to give the lentils more body. Split mung bean lentils are cooked at a ratio of 1:4 cups of lentils to water. They're brought to a boil with turmeric and salt and the cooked vegetables are added after the lentils reach the desired consistency. While the lentils are cooking, the peas are stir-fried with tomatoes and ginger paste in a tempering of hot oil, cumin seeds, star anise and bay leaves and then added to the cooked lentils. Lentils are best served over hot rice or chapatis/tortillas.