Instructions
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1Dal
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3Preheat your outdoor grill. Place Fresh Hatch Green Chile directly on the grill grates and cover. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes without leaving unattended, checking until the skin is dark, blistered, and beginning to separate from the flesh.
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4Turn the chile and repeat the process on all sides until fully charred. Transfer to a large bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap to steam for 30 minutes.
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5Once cool enough to handle, peel away and discard the skins. Open each chile, remove the seeds, and cut the flesh into ¼ inch pieces. Set aside.
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6In a medium pot, heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the finely diced onion, season with salt and pepper, and cook for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cumin, chopped tomatoes, roasted Hatch Green Chile, and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes until the tomatoes begin to break down.
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7Rinse the lentils under cold water until the water runs clear, then drain. Add the lentils to the pot along with 4 cups of water, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and freshly cracked black pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce to medium-low and cook, stirring every 3 to 5 minutes, for 30 to 40 minutes until the lentils are soft and the consistency resembles a rough puree with a little texture. The dal will thicken as it cools.
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8Just before serving, stir in the juice of half a lime and ⅓ cup fresh chopped cilantro. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, cumin, and lime juice as desired.
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9Serve with basmati rice and fry bread. Top with sliced avocado, thinly sliced jalapeño, chopped tomato, toasted pumpkin seeds, more lime juice, and additional fresh cilantro as desired.
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11Fry Bread
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12Whisk together flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder in a bowl. Add lukewarm milk and stir until a dough ball forms. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
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13Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and flatten each piece with your hands into a 4-inch disc.
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14Heat ½ inch of vegetable oil in a pan over medium heat. Cook each disc until golden brown on both sides. Drain on a paper towel and serve warm alongside the dal.
This Hatch Green Chile Red Lentil Dal with Fry Bread is a warm, nourishing, and deeply satisfying meal that brings together the smoky flavor of grilled Hatch Green Chile with the comforting richness of slow-simmered red lentils. Served alongside golden homemade fry bread, it's a beautiful fusion of New Mexico tradition and global comfort food at its very best.
I’m not sure how long it took European explorers to realize they had not found a new way to travel to India in the 15th century, but naming the inhabitants of the “New World” in the western Hemisphere “Indians” is a label that inexplicably stuck. You would think that this realization would have quickly led to a correction.
The indigenous people of the western hemisphere and Indians from the Asian subcontinent are two groups are incredibly diverse in their own right. American Indians, Alaska Natives, and others stretching from the top of North American down to the lower tip of South America had and still have distinct languages, customs, histories, and food traditions. The same is also true of Indians from southern Asia – a vast population of over a billion people with very different culinary practices, languages, religions, and culture. A comparison of the two – especially on the food side of things – seems to show little overlap.
With this dal dish, I developed a recipe that uses one of the most famous dishes to come out of the Indian subcontinent and used ingredients that were available to the indigenous populations of the western hemisphere. Dal is very popular Indian subcontinent meal that uses lentils and many aromatics and flavors to create a satisfying vegetarian or vegan meal. Red lentils, also known as masoor dal, break down in this recipe and create a creamy consistency that nourishes you with its superfood status.
While lentils are not a “New World” ingredient, we do happen to grow more of them in Montana than any other part of the country. My favorite are ones called Petite Crimson lentils grown by Montana farmers and sold by Timeless Food (www.timelessfood.com). Many stores will sell red lentils in one-pound packages or in the bulk food section.
This dal is enhanced and paired with ingredients that weren’t a part of “Old World” cuisine until European explorers brought them back following expeditions. Chiles, avocados, tomatoes, pumpkin (I use the seeds) and a cameo of American Indian fry bread (instead of the traditional Indian naan) are the ingredients that will blend some rich culinary traditions of these vast populations together into something you will love to put on your kitchen table.
For this recipe, I used Hatch chiles from New Mexico that are in season every August and September. They can often be found in Montana grocery stores during those months, or you can order them online. If not, consider using their sisters, Anaheim chiles, which can be found nearly everywhere all year. The dal and the fry bread are a great meal alone, but you can also serve on top of some fragrant basmati rice.
