Traditional Sri Lankan dhal curry: parippu of red lentils with coconut milk, curry leaves and tempered spices

In Sri Lanka, rice and curry is not a dish: it is the whole meal, a constellation of small curries around a mountain of rice. And there is no rice and curry without parippu, the red lentil dhal, the cheapest, quickest and most beloved curry on the island, eaten at breakfast with bread, at lunch with rice and at dinner with hoppers.

The Sri Lankan version differs from the Indian ones by the coconut milk, which makes the dhal creamy and sweet, and by the final seasoning, the tempering: mustard seeds, onion, garlic, dried chili and curry leaves fried in very hot oil and poured over, sizzling. The local roasted, dark curry powder and pandan complete the aroma.

It is a half-hour, one-pot dish, and it serves both as a side and as a complete vegetarian meal with rice and pol sambol, grated coconut with chili and lime. Red lentils are found in any market, and fresh curry leaves in Indian grocery stores or frozen.

Recipe card

• Origin: Sri Lanka
• Category: Lentil curry, side dish or vegetarian main course
• Difficulty: Easy
• Preparation time: 10 minutes
• Cooking time: 30 minutes
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 cup red lentils (masoor dhal), rinsed
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 green chili, halved
• 1 piece of pandan, 5 cm (optional)
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon Sri Lankan curry powder (or regular curry powder)
• 1 cup coconut milk
• Salt to taste

Ingredients — tempering

• 2 tablespoons coconut or regular oil
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 dried red chilies, broken
• 10 fresh curry leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder (optional)

Method

1. Put the lentils in a pot with the water, turmeric, chopped onion, garlic, tomato, green chili, pandan, cinnamon and curry powder.
2. Bring to a boil, skim off the foam, lower the heat and cook half-covered for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils fall apart into a thin purée.
3. Add the coconut milk and salt and cook for another 5 minutes on low, without boiling hard, until creamy.
4. In a small frying pan, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add the onion, garlic, dried chilies and curry leaves and fry for 2 minutes, until the onion is golden.
5. Turn off the heat, add the chili powder and pour the hot tempering over the dhal. Stir.
6. Remove the cinnamon and pandan, taste for salt and serve with white rice.

Tips and variations

• Red lentils need no soaking and cook in 20 minutes; green or brown ones take twice as long and give a different texture.
• Coconut milk only at the end and without boiling hard, so it does not split or lose its flavor.
• Dried curry leaves are no good; without fresh ones, it is better to omit them.
• Pol sambol: fresh grated coconut with red onion, chili powder, lime, salt and pieces of dried fish (Maldive fish), pounded together.
• Spinach or cubed pumpkin can cook along with the lentils.
• Keeps 4 days in the fridge; when reheating, add a little water, since it thickens.
• Sri Lankan curry powder is dark-roasted; regular works, with a lighter flavor.

Parippu is the curry Sri Lanka eats every day, cheap, quick and comforting, with the sizzle of the curry-leaf tempering as its signature. With rice and coconut, it is a whole meal.