Lentils with tahini and crispy onions
The onions make it sweet, the tahini makes it creamy, and the lentils make this a hearty side dish.
Ingredients
Crispy onions
- 1 big onion cut in half, each half cut into thin rings
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- sunflower oil or whatever oil can handle high heat
Lentils
- 750 ml water
- 175 g green lentils dried
- 30 g tahini
- 1 clove of garlic finely chopped
- 1 big green chili pepper finely chopped
- 30 ml lemon juice (or 2 tbsp, equivalent to the juice of 1 lemon)
- ¾-1 tsp ground cumin
- 30 g almond flakes toasted
- 10 g fresh parsley
- 30 ml olive oil
- salt & pepper
- ¼ tsp paprika powder to garnish at the end
Instructions
- Put the lentils in a big pot with the water and let soak for an hour.
- In a pan, quickly toast the almond flakes for a minute over high heat. Watch closely, they will burn if you leave!
- Coat the bottom of the pan in quite a bit of oil and put on medium-high to high heat. Coat the onion half-rings in the cornstarch, and fry the onion in batches in the oil (don't overcrowd the pan, or they won't fry). Make sure the onions are brown and very crispy. Spoon the onions onto a plate with kitchen paper to absorb any excess oil. Lightly salt, this will help them stay crispy.
- Turn on the heat for the pot with lentils and bring to a boil. When it boil, bring down to a simmer and let cook for 15 minutes. Drain into a sieve and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.
- Meanwhile, add the garlic, tahini, chili pepper, lemon juice, cumin and some salt to a big shallow dish. Mix well and put aside until the lentils are done.
- Right before serving, put half of the crispy onions, most of the almonds and a third of the parsley in a big shallow dish. Add the lentils and mix well. Sprinkle over the rest of the onions, almonds and parsley. Add a touch of paprika powder for some colour.
Notes
From 'Falastin' by Tara Wigley and Sami Tamimi.