Amelia Freer's One Pot Green Dahl recipe - your batch cooking best friend

We love this idiot-proof one-pot dish that involves assembling cheap ingredients out of your store cupboard and throwing in a few greens at the end. Not only is it tasty, but suits most diets, freezes perfectly, and is nutritionist-approved.  "This is a one-pot wonder that we often make for Sunday night dinner at our house. Nourishing and wholesome, it really sets us up for the week ahead," says Amelia. "I’ve added extra greens here with some Swiss chard, but you could easily swap this for spinach (a few cubes of frozen spinach would work well), beet leaves, cavolo nero, or even a couple handfuls of peas, if that’s what you have to hand."

The recipe is taken from her latest book The Organised Cook: The life-changing way to save time, shop smarter and eat more healthily. It suits most dietary requirements and can be made vegan, gluten and dairy-free.

Why not make double quantities? Dahl is the perfect candidate for batch cooking; for more tips, the Batch Lady has you covered with more batch-cooking recipes.

If you like this, try Amelia's Cheat's Fish Pie recipe and her tips for Get The Gloss on how to keep an organised kitchen - it makes you eat more healthily apparently! 

Amelia Freer's One-pot Green Dahl

Suitable for : GF/(DF)/VEGAN/VEGETARIAN 

• Serves 4–6
• Prep time: 5-10 mins
•  Cook time: 1 hr

Ingredients:  

• 1 shallot or ½ medium white onion, sliced
• 1 tbsp coconut oil or mild olive oil
• 1 large piece of fresh root ginger (about 3cm), peeled and grated
• 2 cloves garlic, grated
• 1 green chilli, deseeded and chopped
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 300g dried black/brown lentils 
• 1 × 400ml tin of coconut milk
• 200g Swiss chard, washed and roughly chopped
• natural or dairy-free yoghurt, to serve (optional)
• small handful of fresh coriander, chopped

Method: 

1. In a shallow saucepan, fry the shallot or onion in the coconut or olive oil over a medium heat for 5 minutes, until it starts to soften and caramelise, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the ginger, garlic and chilli and all of the spices, and fry for another 5 minutes, stirring often.
3. Mix in the lentils, coconut milk and 650ml water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 40–50 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are soft and the water absorbed.
4. Add the Swiss chard and cook for 5 minutes, until wilted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Serve warm with a little yoghurt (or dairy-free alternative) swirled through, if you fancy, and coriander sprinkled on top.

The Organised Cook: The life-changing way to save time, shop smarter and eat more healthily by Amelia Freer is out now, published by Lagom

Buy now, £12.50