Split Pea and Sausage Dahl

Dahl (or Dal, Dhal, Daal) is a traditionally vegetarian meal in India. Because I am pregnant and trying to consume more protein, I added some great turkey sausage that I purchased through a friend’s food co-op (tease: come back Friday for more details about co-ops and other alternative food sources!). Thankfully there are numerous variations of this meal so I don’t feel too guilty for modifying it. I would have preferred soaked brown rice to serve it over, but we have white. Read this interesting blog post about white and brown rice at Nutrition and Physical Regeneration.

I modeled the recipe after the Split Pea Dahl recipe from Hillbilly Housewife, but made quite a few changes – mostly just simplified it even more.

Ingredients:

• 1lb (2 cups) green split peas
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 medium onion – finely diced
• sausage links – chopped

Directions:

Sort and rinse peas then simmer in a large pot of water (about 2 quarts) until they are tender and start to disintegrate (45 min-1hour).

In the meantime, heat oil in small skillet and add spices and salt. Saute gently until fragrant. Add onion and sausage and cook fully.

Ladle out some of the water that the peas are cooking in and add to the skillet.

Stir until spices are dissolved and then add the contents of the skillet to the pot of peas.

Continue to cook peas until they are the desired consistency (like a thick curry).

Serve over rice.

This makes enough for 4-6 large portions. We could have stretched it out much more and we still ended up with some to freeze!