mmm...dahl!

Recently I have taken up cooking. You know - moderately - once a week. But once I make something - I make "for a village". So I am reasonably well-fed these days.
Today's topic was DAHL aka Lentil and Spinach curry.
I have been wanting to do it for ages. The love for it comes from amazing veggie-restaurant "Perfection. Satisfaction. Promise", where Leslie and I occasionally go. I always get half-half of Dahl and Avocatofu on sweet potatoes. It's SO delicious!
Anyway, when I saw Dalh recipe in this super-awesome cook-book of Sujeeve's, the plan was "cooked" - I will make it.
The lentils I purchased already the day I bought the wild rice. And today was the day to make it.
Here's the recipe, if you wanna try it too.
You need:
1 cup of yellow split peas (soak overnight)
1 ounce of spinach (226 grams)
1 chopped onion
1/4 cup of tomato paste
1 teaspoon of turmeric
salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons oil
4-6 cups of water
1 tablespoon of ground garlic and ginger
garam masala - it's a magic indian spice mixture. I think it means "everything". I made "my own" version of it due my kitchen lacking it. It contains: cumin, coriander, cardamom, black peppercorns (who are they?), cloves, cinnamon, grated nutmeg. I added all of the above (except peppercorns and cloves) in a grounded form (cardamom I had in seed form and they were too tiny to crush them) and in random quantities.

How to make: Fry onions until soft. Add garlic, ginger, turmeric, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add tomato paste. Add lentils. Mix well. Add water and stir well. Bring to boil. Add spinach. Add all the spices that you have not yet added. Cook on medium heat for 30 min or until lentils are soft.
And voila - ready!
It is DELICIOUS!
So delicious that I forgot to take a picture.
***

Otherwise life is good as well. Saturday was just gorgeous and so warm (as I said). I went shopping and bought a beautiful skirt. So now all I need is a dinner invitation. And then later we went to Dorota's to have the first burger of the season. It was delicious. And we had equally delicious sangria and chatted. We celebrated the Earth Hour and played the game called "What". Lots of fun!
But I did/do miss Kullionu... I have not seen this girl for way too long.

Sunday was gray and rainy. But I did some cleaning and worked out. Over the last week I worked out 4 times. The crazy thing is that my virtual trainer actually guilt-trips me when I miss a work out. Crazy. Little cartoon character and so powerful.
Later I met up with Ali-Chuma and we played pool and had a beer. I was on some sort of lucky strike - I won 5 games out of 7. And once I even got two of the balls in at the same time. Good times playing and it was good to catch up with Ali.

Today I had a meeting (clinical review related) and after chatted with Juzer. I have not talked to him for a long time either. He has lots of great ideas:) Even my future brightened up:)