Make Ahead Meals- Crockpot Dal

Without making meals ahead of time (or at least making the major components of meals), we'd either order pizza or eat what the kids have started calling "leftovers thrown together in a pan" on Monday and Tuesday nights. I'm trying to get better at really planning meals for these 2 nights. I was doing really good for a while and then fell off the meal-planning wagon.

Here's what we ate tonight:

Basmati rice with crockpot dal and raita

(My spell-check only recognizes the words "rice", "with" and "and" in that meal)

Here's how I put together the dal...approximately! It was super flavorful and packed with veggies.

The night before, combine the following in your crockpot:

2 cups of split peas

6 or so cups of water

Let soak, with the crockpot off, until the next morning. Then, before work, add:

1 bunch lacinato kale, chopped

4 small tomatoes, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 cup chopped carrots

Then in a small cast iron skillet, heat 4 Tbsp. (1/4 cup) of canola oil (you could do less, but this is for a LOT of dal!). Add:

1 Tbsp. cumin seeds

2 tsp. mustard seeds

1 Tbsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. turmeric

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp. salt

When seeds start to pop and garlic is fragrant (not burned!), pour the oil into the crockpot with other ingredients. Cook on high for about 8 hours.

Then, all you have to do when you get home from work is cook some basmati rice (super quick) and stir together chopped cucumber, minced cilantro, plain yogurt, lime juice and salt. It makes a really tasty raita to serve on top.

Look for another make-ahead dinner tomorrow!