COCONUT MILK LENTIL (KAMANDE) CURRY
How do you find boarding school meals in Kenyan schools? My story with lentils begins way back while I was in primary school. It has not been a love-hate kind of relationship but rather a hatred-love relationship. The first time I ate Lentils, in Kenya commonly referred to as Kamande was while I was in primary school. That is what was prepared for lunch one day and on eating it, I hated them from then on. They were not tasting sweet and I remember saying I would never eat them again. Whenever I saw kamande/lentils anywhere, I would never bother eating or even having a bite of them.
The story changed last year, when we had a school assignment to be done and had to have a sleep over at a friend’s place so that we could work on the assignment. Since it was getting late, my friend decided that we will eat lentils/kamande. At first, I was skeptical because of my past experience, but well, you can never be too rigid at all times. I agreed and even offered to cook the lentils/kamande and my friend made the rice. By the time I was done with my supper, I had fallen in love with kamande.
Can you imagine from not ever wanting to have a taste of them to now craving them? I decided to do my kitchen experiments with them and create ways of having kamande/lentils in a very simple and enjoyable way and one of the ways I came up with is by making coconut milk lentil curry which I am sharing it with you today and I will be sharing the rest with you in other sessions. This coconut milk lentil curry came to be my best among the other ways I came up with.
That’s how my hate-love relationship with kamande came to be. By know you are curious on how you can make. Let’s get into the kitchen and start cooking. For video lovers, here is a video to showing the steps I used to prepare the meal.
- 2 tbsp of Cooking Oil
- 1 Bulb of Onion
- 3 Cloves of Crushed Garlic
- 1 Piece of Green Capsicum
- 2 Tomatoes
- 2 1/2 Cups of Lentils/Kamande
- A Bunch of Parsley/Dhania
- 2 tspns of Cumin Powder
- 1 tsp of Black Pepper
- 2 tbsp of Turmeric Powder
- 1 tbsp of Curry Powder
- 1 Cube of Royco
- 1 tbsp of Royco Powder
- 1 1/2 tbsp of Tomato Paste
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Chop all your ingredients and have them set aside ready for cooking.
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In a sufuria or cooking pot, add in cooking oil and then add in your chopped onions. Allow it to fry for sometime until the onions become translucent.
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Add in the cumin powder and alternatively you can also use cumin seeds. Mix it in together with the onions and cook until the onions turn golden brown.
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Once the onions are golden brown, add in the crushed garlic, parsley/dhania stems and black pepper and stir everything together. Allow it to cook for about 1-2 minutes before adding the next ingredient.
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Add in the chopped green capsicum or green bell pepper and mix it. Then add in your tomatoes.
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Once you add in your tomatoes, you are now ready to get spicy with the food. For the spices we will add in turmeric powder, curry powder and the tomato paste and sprinkle the food with salt. Stir the food and cover the sufuria for sometime and allow the stew to cook for about 2-5 minutes to form a thick tomato base.
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Once the tomato base is ready, add in the boiled lentils/kamande to your food and stir together with the other ingredients.
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Add in the coconut milk into the sufuria and stir it together with the kamande. Then add in very little water bit by bit ensuring you do not add in a pond of water. Then give everything a good stir before adding in the royco cube and royco powder. Adding in the royco cube and royco powder is optional.
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Finally add in the dhania leaves. Stir everything once more and then cover the sufuria and leave the food to cook for about 5 minutes before removing it and serving it.
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Once it’s ready, remove the food from the cooker and serve it up before your tummy raises complaints because, haha, the aroma in the kitchen won’t leave you in peace until you feed your tummy.
I will be excited to see what you come up with after following the recipe. You can share your outcome with me, by tagging me on Instagram @stacykendi or Facebook Stacy Kendi or Twitter @holahme_dishes and I will be glad to share your outcome with the world.
Would you be interested in trying out other stew recipes? Here are a few other recipes you could try out as you enjoy your time in the kitchen. Cumin curry green peas (minji) recipe and honey-cinnamon pork recipe . They all make up for a perfect lunch or dinner and they are well accompanied by meals like rice, chapati and spaghetti.
To enjoy more of my recipes, scroll to the next recipe on the website and keep enjoying having delicious meals at all times.
Remember to keep it here for more delicious recipes and share with friends. Let’s all build a community of good, sweet meals.
Always Healthy on Life Active Hours on Meals (Holahme). Cheers ?
Thumps up Stacy. I will definitely try out the lentils. I confess am where you were. This might just change my attitude. Keep going gal.
Thank you so much? I believe the recipe will also change your attitude on kamande?. Do let me know how you found it.