Helena's Green lentils and lamb curry recipe

Here at Homes Victoria we are not only building homes, we are also building communities.  

Recently, Homes Victoria partnered with Belgium Avenue Neighbourhood House (BANH) and Richmond Youth Hub to celebrate the diverse and vibrant community of the North Richmond housing site through a community-inspired artwork for the hoarding on the Big Housing Build project site at Elizabeth Street, Richmond, where we are building 144 modern, sustainably designed homes.

You can learn more about the new artwork celebrating North Richmond’s vibrant culture here.

"When we make vegetarian meals, we make this lentil curry, this recipe is a non-spicy version. I learnt this recipe from my Grandma, it has a lot of good ingredients like garlic, onion, green chilli, turmeric and olive oil. The lamb curry recipe is also from my Grandma, I learned since childhood and practiced how to make it. We have a fasting day on a Wednesday in my family and culture. It is not vegan, so we don’t eat this meal on Wednesday and Friday. The recipes contain black cardamom known as king of the spices – which goes in right at the end or it loses its taste."

- Helena

ALICHA MESER (green lentil)

• 450g green lentils
• 2 tablespoon grated garlic
• 1 onion chopped
• A pinch of turmeric
• A pinch of black cardamom
• Canola oil mixed olive oil

Method

1. Boil green lentils for 3 minutes in a saucepan, check until they are soft
2. fry onion and garlic with canola oil in a pan for 5 minutes
3. Add cardamom, turmeric and salt  to frying pan
4. Add the lentils into the saucepan
5. Put a little bit of water and cook for 5 minutes  

Spicy butter

• 2kg Unsalted butter
• Cardamom
• Dried lippia abyssinica
• Pinch turmeric
• 2 cups water

Method

1. Melt and leave in a jar for 5 days
2. Use half a tablespoon of spicy butter when cooking lamb curry.

Lamb curry  

• 2kg lamb
• 2 onion
• 1 garlic bulb
• 3 tablespoons Berbere (Ethiopian spice)
• Canola oil
• 2 pinches of black cardamom (add at the end)
• Salt
• Spicy butter mix

Method

1. Boil water in large pan, add lamb and boil until soft
2. Fry onions, garlic, Berbere, red chilli powder in a pan and add lamb
3. Add spicy butter to pan
4. Use water from boiled meat to create more liquid in the frying pan
5. Cook for 20 minutes with a lid on, stirring occasionally
6. Taste and see if you need any more salt or other spices
7. Add the cardamom and stir, turn off heat and it’s ready to serve

Both dishes can be served with injera (traditional Ethiopian flatbread) or rice.