What’s not to love about a layered dip? A you can have it all dish, a celebration of flavours and textures. All at once smooth fresh and creamy, with a rich, earthy depth, finished with a buttery spicy crunch.
6
Serves
20m
Prep
25m
Cook
Ingredients
Lentils
Makes 4 cups
- 2 tablespoons ghee
- 4 cloves garlic, grated
- 20g ginger, peeled and grated
- 1 brown onion, finely chopped
- ½ medium carrot, finely grated
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon aleppo chilli
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon miso paste
- 250g red lentils, cooked
- 325ml water or vegetable stock
Tofu whip
Makes 2½ cups
- 450g silken tofu
- 270g Danish fetta
- 1 lemon, zested
Crunchy spiced topping
- 5 tablespoons ghee
- 3 eschalot, julienned
- 3cm piece ginger, peeled and julienned
- Handful curry leaves
- 2 red chillies, julienned
- 2 teaspoons mustard seeds
- 80g roasted pistachios, crushed
- Flatbread to serve
Method
1. For the lentils
Melt the ghee in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and ginger, sauté for a couple of minutes, until softening. Add the onion and carrot, reduce the heat and sauté for a further 5-6 minutes (adding in a little water as required if the mixture becomes too dry), until softened but not browned.
To the onion mixture add the brown sugar, cardamom, garam marsala, cumin, chilli powder, turmeric and cook for a minute until fragrant. Stir in the tomato paste, fry for 2-3 minutes then add the miso and 325ml water or stock, stir to mix. Add the lentils, gently simmer for about 5 minutes. Using a food processor or immersion blender, blitz until the consistency is to your liking (smooth or a little coarse – you could even serve as is), adding additional liquid (water, stock or lemon juice) if required to loosen the mixture until you have an easy dipping consistency. Set aside.
2. For the tofu whip
Add the tofu, fetta and lemon zest to a food processor and blitz for about 30 seconds until smooth. Set aside.
3. To serve
Spoon a couple of dollops of the whipped tofu onto a serving plate, spreading with the back of the spoon. Top with warm lentils and spoon over some of the hot crunchy spices and scatter over some crushed pistachios. Serve immediately with fresh warm flatbreads.
Notes
Red or Persian lentils are available whole and split – both work, although the whole Australian variety ‘Northfield’ is highly recommended.
The lentils can thicken on sitting, simply add a little more liquid if this happens.
You can use any tofu. The silken gives a light counter to the lentils, if using medium or firm tofu, you will need to add in a little liquid (about 60ml). The liquid could be lemon juice, water, soy milk or even buttermilk.
