FODMAP friendly Daal (or not quite daal)
Vegan, nut free, FODMAP friendly *Cups and measures are in Australian cups and measures. Use ml for international accuracy.
Ingredients
For the daal:
- 100-150 g red lentils soaked overnight (see notes)
- 40-60ml (2-3 tablespoons)* oil of choice I used vegetable oil
- 20 or so curry leaves reserve the remainder for the top optional
- Coriander stems washed and chopped (only if you’re garnishing with coriander, can be omitted)
- 50 g spring onion greens chopped
- 50-100 g freshly grated ginger
- 2-4 tablespoons (yes, tablespoons) ground cumin
- 1/2 - 1 tablespoon garam masala use less for fresher spice blends
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric you could also use fresh to taste
- Chilli flakes or powder to taste (optional)
- 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or to taste) I used table salt
- Fresh pepper to taste
- 250-500ml (1-2 cups)* water
- 2 medium carrots grated
- 300-400 g Japanese or Kent pumpkin grated (see notes)
- 1 X 400g tin plain chopped tomatoes
- 1 X 400g tin coconut milk check that it doesn’t contain inulin
- Juice of 1/2 a lemon to taste
To finish:
- Remaining curry leaves
- 1 bunch coriander optional
- Tadka optional (see notes)
- Lactose free greek yoghurt or plant based yoghurt optional
- Rice to serve
Instructions
- Thoroughly wash and rinse your lentils from the night before. Grate and chop all your ingredients and have them ready to go.
- Heat the oil in a large soup pot over a low-medium heat. Once warmed, add the curry leaves, coriander stems (if using) spring onion greens and ginger and stir to combine. Cook until softened and fragrant or for 2-3 minutes. Add a splash of water if they start to stick at any time.
- Add the spices and seasoning and stir to combine. Allow them to cook off for a minute before adding the lentils, water, grated vegetables, chopped tomatoes and coconut milk. Stir to combine, then turn the heat down to low and pop a lid on. Cook the daal, stirring occasionally, until the pumpkin is soft, around 10-15 minutes.
- Once the vegetables are soft, use an immersion blender (a soup stick) to puree the daal to a more daal like consistency. You can also use a blender, but you might need to cool the daal first (particularly if you are using a Nutribullet).
- Add the lemon juice and taste the daal. Adjust the seasoning, spices and lemon juice to suit your tastes.
- Serve with rice (or without) coriander, a bit of yoghurt and a tadka with the curry leaves, if you’re using it. See the section on tadka above for more information.
Notes
- Red lentils are FODMAP friendly in 23g per person per serve. In serves of 46g or more, they contain moderate amounts of GOS. Monash also theorises that soaking them helps make them more digestible, so you might be able to eat a bit more than 23g per serve.
- This dahl uses 150g red lentils to serve 6 people.
- The daal uses carrots and pumpkin to bulk it out in a low FODMAP way. They are plain enough in flavour but also starchy enough to thicken up the daal as it cools (much like lentils normally do).
- Monash have recently (as of November 2024) lowered the threshold for Japanese/Kent pumpkin. It is low FODMAP in 75g serves and up to 161g serves per person. In 162g serves, it contains moderate amounts of fructans. It is still the pumpkin variety that you can eat most of on the low FODMAP diet. Another thing to keep in mind is that you don't need to change anything if you have been eating pumpkin without issue prior to this change.
- I only have access to supermarket spices which aren’t that fresh. If you have access to good quality fresh spices, add them to their tastes as they will be stronger than the spices I have used.
- 100g of ginger is a lot! I know. I find that it works so well to create a nice flavour base for the daal, but you can use less if you like.
- Some brands of coconut milk contain inulin, which is not FODMAP friendly. In Australia, I like TCC brand and Ayam brand.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!