Let’s talk batch cooking for busy mums!
Since becoming a new parent, batch cooking has saved me! With no need to cook every night, my time can be spent relaxing either with or without the babe 🥰
This low-calorie, super healthy Red Lentil Dahl has quickly become my go to meal, with only 165 calories per portion (365 with rice) it’s perfect for my sustainable weight loss as well as satisfying some much needed winter comfort food cravings 🥰
It’s cheap, quick and easy to make and is easily freezable, and it happens to be vegan! Although you can easily add some chicken for some extra sustenance 😋
You’ll only need one large sauce pan and containers to store your Dahl! (Easily bought from Amazon)
Ingredients
1 tbsp Olive oil
2 brown onions – diced
4 cloves garlic – chopped finely
Chunk of ginger – chopped finely
Spice mix
1 tsp chilli flakes
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garam masala
300g red lentils – rinsed
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin light coconut milk
1 veggie stock pot in 500ml hot water
400g garden peas
Big chunk Coriander – rough chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
Juice of 2 lemons – do not miss the lemons 🍋
Optional to add spinach, chicken or anything else you fancy!
Recipe
I find it easy to have all my ingredients chopped and ready to go before I start cooking, but your welcome to do it as you go also, you do you!
This is an ‘as you go’ recipe….
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat, and dice up your two onions. Pop your onions in the saucepan and whilst they’re cooking, peal and dice up 4 cloves of garlic and your chunk of ginger. Once your onions have become translucent (mine were a little overdone ‘cos I was checking on the babe) pop your garlic and ginger and stir to combine.
Now make your spice mix, I use heaped teaspoons of all my spices, it’s fairly spicey so you can always go easy on the chilli flakes if you fancy a milder Dahl ☺️
Boil the kettle to make your stock.
After a couple of minutes when your garlic and ginger is cooked, make a small well in your pan and pop your spice mix in, stir around and let the spices toast for a minute or two.
Make your stock and add slowly to your pan, making sure everything is incorporated before adding more, then add your tin of chopped tomatoes and coconut milk (total calories with light or regular coconut milk are below) and leave to reduce for 20 minutes. No need to stir during this time. (I admittedly left mine around 30 mins this time because of babe, but I just added a little water later on to loosen it up again, no drama 😉)
After 20 minutes, rinse off your red lentils until the water runs clear and add them to your pot, leave to cook for 15/20 minutes, stirring intermittently to ensure the lentils don’t stick to the bottom of the pan 👌🏼
Whilst the lentils are cooking chop up your coriander, and get your lemons and peas ready.
After 15 minutes check your lentils are cooked, they should have a slight bite, not too hard, not too mushy. Then add your peas, coriander and lemon juice (the lemon juice is a game changer do not miss it out 👍🏼) Add salt and pepper to taste and then leave to cool before packing up 👏🏼
You can split this into however many portions you like (calories for the total amount of Dahl are below) I like to split it into 10 portions, and then I have it with 100g/150g of basmati rice in the evening depending on how hungry I am 😋
I always leave 5 portions out for the next 5 evenings and then put 5 portions in the freezer for the following week! Two weeks worth of meals! Perfecto!
Feel free to add any extra veggies or proteins ☺️
When heating up it takes two-three minutes in my microwave and I’ve always got some batch cooked rice ready as well! So even if the babe is having a meltdown I can always get some healthy, tasty food in a flash 😅
Average total calories with light coconut milk 1289
For 10 portions – 129 cal per portion
Average total calories with regular coconut milk 1649
For 10 portions – 165 cal per portion
Calories for basmati rice
100g – 133cal
150g – 199cal
Enjoy!!
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