Red Lentil Dhal with Coconut / Indiase Rode Linzen met Kokos

As often with curries, this wasn't a dish you'd enjoy for its good looks, but it was very delicious nonetheless. You will have to stir regularly to prevent it from burning. I used only one fresh chilli as that normally produces an acceptable level of hotness, but in this case it wasn't hot at all. I added extra ground chilli and lots of pepper. Next time I'll use two fresh chillis.

The only pity was that the essential item that really made this dish wasn't actually part of the recipe but a mere serving suggestion: the cucumber raita. I looked at several recipes on the internet and then decided to make my own version using quark and yoghurt (I would have used Greek yoghurt but we already had the quark and I needed to use it up), a cucumber (seeded), a squeeze of lime/lemon, salt, pepper, and lots of mint.

Edited 4 February 2016: Very mild if you omit the chilli peppers. If serving as a main course, I would add extra veggies, ie. a few roasted/fried tomatoes, and maybe a handful of raisins. For the cucumber raita, about half a cucumber, grated or finely chopped, should be enough; if grated, be sure you get rid of most of the liquid before adding to the other ingredients.

Edited 2 July 2017: Don't add garlic to the raita, you'll end up with a zaziki instead!