Lentils have been part of human diet dating back to the earliest civilizations. Present in cuisines around the world, lentils are staples in cuisines of the Indian subcontinent where they are often cooked into a curry and eaten with rice or rotis.  In Iran, Ethiopia, the Americas, and Europe, lentils are used in stews and soups.

Lentils come in a variety of colours and have many different names. There seems to be some confusion in the use of the word lentil. Some categorize pulses of many different legume species as lentils, while others refer to only those coming from the species Lens culinaris or Lens esculenta. (According to FAO, pulses are the dry seeds of legumes excluding vegetable crops such as beans and green peas and oil crops such as soyabean and peanut.)

Split pulses, often with their hulls removed, are called dhals (dal/daal).

Parippu is a staple dish in Sri Lanka. Eaten at any meal, many find their meal incomplete without it.  Different dhals can be used; masoor (red lentil), thoor dhal (pigeon pea), kadala Parippu (channa dhal: shelled and split black chickpea), mung parippu (shelled and spilt mung bean) to list a few. Recipes for a parippu dish are as numerus as there are cooks! Over the years, I have tried and tested many recipes, and this is one I have been consistently happy with.

Ingredients

• 1 cup masoor (maisoor) dhal
• 4 shallots/ ½ large onion chopped
• 4 cloves garlic peeled and whole
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• 1 small piece cinnamon
• ½-1 tsp Maldive fish chips (optional)
• 4 cups Water (or as needed)
• ¼ cup coconut milk
• ½ tsp chili powder
• ¼ – ½ tsp cumin powder
• Salt to taste

Temper

• ¼ tsp mustard seeds
• ¼ tsp cumin seeds
• 2-3 shallots thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic thinly sliced
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 3-inch piece Pandan leaf cut into small pieces
• 1 tsp finely sliced lemon grass (from bottom white portion)
• 2 dried red chilis broken into pieces
• Ghee for frying

Method

Wash well and soak the dhal for about an hour. Place the dhal with water, onion, garlic, turmeric, and cinnamon in a large pot. Cook till dhal is soft and the garlic cloves mash easily. You may need to replenish water. The lentils should be very soft and mushy and there should be some liquid in the pot. At this point, and please note only at this point, add salt to taste. Add chili and cumin powder ad cook for a minute. Add coconut milk, stir well and simmer gently. Meanwhile, heat ghee in a small frying pan. Add the mustard and cumin seeds, when they start to pop, add the rest of the temper ingredients. Fry till the onions are golden. Add the temper (reserve a bit for plating) to the dhal and turn off heat. Stir well. Transfer to a serving dish and top with the reserved temper. (If you wish, you may also sprinkle some cumin powder)

Serve as a side dish for a rice or stringhopper meal, with rotis, or with warm crusty bread and coconut sambol. The latter being the famous PPP, paan, parippu, pol-sambol, meal!

Bonus Info
Lentil stew is mentioned in the bible. Genesis 25:30-34 relates the story of how Esau traded his birth right for a bowl of lentil stew… for you Sri Lankans here, just think, he traded up for a bowl of parippu! Yes it is that good 😊