I can’t remember the last time that I made a meal that had lentils in.

Now that I have discovered the magic of aquafaba, I make sure that the only legume in my pantry is tins and tins of chickpeas.

With the 10 days fast , fast approaching us, my dad has decided that he wants to start fasting ahead of time, which means that I have to whip out an extra assortment of dishes for him to enjoy.

Unlike my mother who can eat the same meal the entire week, he wants me to cook a little small dishes and a fresh pot of food every day. Which seems super easy but considering he keeps saying not chick peas again whenever he sees me eyeing my tins in the pantry, but there is just so many vegetable curries I can make.

So I had to make an unnecessary stop at the supermarket on the way home, and I hate shopping in peak hour traffic.

The lady at the counter looked at me as if I was crazy, because I had a basket full of tinned beans of every sort, she must be thinking I am trying to generate wind power??? Well with the gale force winds of the past 2 days she could blame my family for that… just kidding.

I recently came across some items of my great grandmothers and I was surprised and shocked with all her trinkets and there and then I decided that with my cultural rich Indian background, I was going to really embrace my Indian side and the first purchase I did was buy some tali trays.

Typical, thanks to the town I live in, they do not stock trays like this here, so I had to go online and buy and considering the price and the fact that I still had to pay customs and pray that SARS would let me pass without hiccups I bought a lot of sizes and shapes at one go.

The verdict, my family are divided on these food trays. My mom and I love it, my dad is having trouble using them, he hasn’t figured out how to eat from them just as yet and the fact that he has to use his hands with these trays, a big no no for him. He is more of a cutlery man…not a single drop of Indian in him, I tell you.

Also the downside to this tali trays is that there are about 5 compartments to each tray which have to be filled with different curries and the fill one of these compartments, I decided to try out lentils with lemon.

The verdict we all loved this dish, it actually tasted like dry roasted chickpeas that we normally serve at prayers.

Ingredients:

• 1 x can lentils, drained and rinsed.
• ¾ x tsp salt.
• 3 x tbsp. oil.
• ½ x tsp mustard seeds.
• 2 x dried chillies, finely chopped.
• 1 x tsp ginger garlic paste.
• 1 x onion, finely chopped
• 1 x sprig curry leaves.
• 1 x tsp lemon juice.

Method:

• Heat oil in a pot.
• Add the mustard seeds and allow to start popping.
• Add the onion, dry chillies and curry leaves.
• Saute till the onions are soft.
• Add in the ginger garlic paste and stir to mix.
• Add salt and mix.
• Mix in the lentils and allow the lentils to heat up.
• Pour over the lemon juice and toss to allow everything to mix with everything.