My boyfriend had a simple request: a biryani that they could handle with a very raw throat. They were in the mood for lentils, and I am always down for some pulses. So, with that in mind I envisioned this dish here. This one is still a work in progress, it needs some refinement.
Ingredients
- 1 cup black (beluga/caviar) lentils, sorted & rinsed
- 1½ cups basmati rice, rinsed
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 1 coloured bell pepper (red/yellow/orange), diced
- 3-4 cloves garlic, mashed and minced
- 3½ cups chicken stock
- Salt to taste (plenty)
- Garam masala, 1½-2 Tbsp
- 2 bay leaves
- 1½ Tbsp olive oil
Preparation
- Wash and prep veggies, rinse and sort lentils & rice, prepare stock.
- Start the olive oil in an instant pot on simmer, and once the oil’s hot toss in the onions with a pinch of salt to start their browning.
- Once the onions are well along, add the peppers and make sure the rest of the ingredients are close to hand.
- Once the peppers have also sautéed to your preferred level, turn off the pot before tossing in the garlic (and any ginger if you minced up ginger as well, optionally) and the spices, including the salt and bay leaves.
- Stir gently to combine before tossing in the rice and lentils, stir, then pour in the stock. For this dish, we’re using 2x volume of lentils and 1x volume of rice as our metric for the liquids; the goal is that most will be absorbed when we’re done.
- Start the Instant Pot on high/more pressure, set to 10 minutes, and let vent naturally for 15 minutes afterwards. This is a fairly uninvolved recipe once it’s started, and the end result has a captivating flavour.
Serve alone or with garlic naan.
Notes
The long pull for this dish is the lentils; a cooking time of about 10 mintues should be enough for that to sort itself out though.