Mushroom, lentil and veg curry

New veg box came today - with some mushrooms! Yum.  We haven't had mushrooms in the veg box for a while (I have bought some in between, I confess).  Now part of me thinks I should save them, and have the older veg - and part of me thinks goody goody what can I make which is tasty from these new ingredients.  So... I used mushroom and swede from new box, red pepper, onion, celery and tomatoes from what we already had.  (everybody deserves a night without broccoli sometimes).

The dinner started off as a curry with dhal, and rice - but the curry was too hot to handle, so I mixed the lentil mix with the veg curry mix - and it was delicious.  (I had adjusted the heat with some sugar first, but I felt the best combination tonight was one delicious mixed casserole, rather than a couple of individually balanced dishes). Served with rice and natural yogurt.

olive oil
1 large onion - chopped
a cup of chopped celery
1 red pepper, chopped
garlic
curry spices
1/4 decent sized swede (turnip in Scotland, not rootabega - but, actually it would work with turnip too)
lots of mushrooms
(sugar)

red lentils
white rice
water

1.  Sweat chopped onion and celery (and guess what, could have been carrot too), in olive (or other) oil, to start the curry.
2.  Add other chopped veg, spices and crushed garlic (you could add spice mixes or your own mix including ginger, chili flakes, cumin etc etc...)
3.  Put lentils on to boil.  If you are aiming for dhal cook them until done, then do the tarka hot spice mix and mix them together just before serving.  For a dish like this - just cook them until cooked (soft to eat) and mix them with the vegetables. (This shows the importance of a bit of a taste - the curry was too hot, a tsp of sugar cooled it, but the mixing together of the lentils made it all delicious).
4.  At about the same time - start the rice off - numerous methods - boil in lots of water (follow packet instructions), bring to boil in water to 1 inch over surface of rice - then seal and put in oven for 20 mins.
5.  Simmer until root veg are getting softer, adding water if and when it starts looking a bit dry.
6.  Add softer veg closer to the end of cooking, lid on steam until looks good to eat.

When all cooked - scoff.  I added natural yogurt - as an excuse because it was quite spicy - but actually mostly because I really enjoy natural yogurt - including a bit of the hot (spicy) and hot (temperature) curry against mild (flavour) and cold (temperature) qualities of the yogurt.