Green lentil curry
------------------

This is very similar to :ref:`chickpea-curry`, but uses more coconut milk and cooks the lentils in place.

:term:`Medium`, :term:`Leftovers`, :term:`Freezes`, :term:`Vegetarian`

Ingredients
^^^^^^^^^^^

* Green :term:`lentils`, dried.
* :term:`Onion`
* :term:`Garlic`
* :term:`Ginger`
* :term:`Coconut milk`, around 300ml for each 500g of dry lentils.

Standard Indian curry spices.
A store bought mix is fine, but you may supplement it with the following:

* Cinnamon, just a small piece of bark
* Star anise, same
* Cumin seeds
* Coriander seeds
* Black pepper corns
* A source of vegan umami. I use dry shiitake mushroom, Vegemite or yeast extract also work. 

Steps
^^^^^

Prepare the vegetables, dicing the onion and garlic into medium pieces, and the ginger into small ones.
Grind all the spices with a mortar and pestle, except the mushroom.

Take a large pot and fry the ginger, onion and garlic in olive oil, in this order, adding a bit of salt to the onion.
Add 80% of the spices and toast them.
Add a small dollop of tomato paste and mix it vigorously to avoid burning.

Add the lentils, washed, and twice as much water.
Adjust the salt, add the whole mushroom, and simmer for at least 25 minutes, until the lentils are fully cooked.
In the last 5 minutes, add the coconut milk and the rest of the spices.

Simmer until it thickens a bit, and discard the mushroom.
Serve over plain rice.