A creamy red lentil daal with acorn and butternut squash, ginger, and coconut milk.
Red Lentil Daal with Squash and Coconut is a delicious and warming recipe to make on the weekend to later warm up for a quick lunch or dinner. We make it for two and it lasts all week long, so even for a family of four, you’re sure to get multiple meals out of this 1 dish!
One of my favorite slow cooking recipes is daal, which if you remember a couple years ago I shared a delicious 30-minute spinach and butternut squash daal recipe served with salted mushrooms — it was a hit! This time around is all about slow cooking and letting the flavors of this dish slowly build and perfume your home. Truly, you can get by with cooking this recipe in 30-minutes, but there’s nothing better than slow cooking this recipe, letting all the flavors build, the daal reduce to get the thick and creamy texture and continue to adjust the seasonings as it changes during the cooking process.
When you cook on low heat for a couple hours, the red lentils break down, the butternut and acorn squash break down and everything just melts together. I prefer to cut the butternut squash and acorn squash into large chunks, so the end result has some chunks of squash to bite into. Otherwise, you can dice it for a pureed texture. Either way, it’s delicious and it’s one of those recipes where you put everything into 1 pot and leave it to cook with minimal oversight! Another addition to this recipe, which makes it delicious, is the fresh ginger. I love stirring in fresh parsley upon serving (you can see the green in the pot from parsley).
If you want to learn more about daal and what it is, read this blog post!
We’ve been making this recipe on Sunday to have a quick lunch or dinner for the week ahead. Sometimes we’ll make some basmati rice to serve on the side of it as well which is delicious and a little goes a long way since this dish is filling from the fiber.
If you try this recipe, I wanna hear about it, so let’s chat! Leave a comment it, rate it (this helps me improve future recipes), and don’t forget to tag a picture #nutritionstripped to show how you live and try these recipes on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
Stripped
Fiber-rich:
There’s roughly 16g of fiber per 1 cup cooked lentils along with about 18g protein! Not to mention, the addition of butternut and acorn squash increase the fiber as well making this dish overall a great source of fiber and an easy way to increase your daily amount of fiber in just one meal
Protein:
Lentils are one of the Top 10 Plant-based Proteins You Should Be Eating, for good reason. They’re affordable, easy to cook with, versatile, delicious, and packed with minerals, fiber, and protein.
Antioxidants:
Beta-carotene is the red/orange pigment found in many fruits and vegetables. Our body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A, a fat-soluble antioxidant in both butternut and acorn squash which helps reduce inflammation, improves immune function, plays an important role in eye health, hair and skin health.
Optimizer Option:
Serve with a dollop of your favorite coconut milk yogurt (unsweetened, plain), ghee, or cilantro for a little flavor boost and a boost of healthy fats from the optional yogurts.
