Prep time: 1 hour
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves:2
Ingredients:
- ½ cup Chana dal (Bengal gram)
- ½ cup Urad dal (I have used both whole and split)
- 2 large tomatoes pureed
- 1 large onions finely sliced
- 2 to 3 green chilies finely chopped
- 5 to 6 large garlic cloves, minced or crushed
- ½ inch ginger grated
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp red chili powder
- 3 to 4 black pepper
- 1 bay leaves
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 2 green cardamom
- 1 tsp Garam masala
- 1 tbsp Kasuri methi
- Salt to taste
- Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing
- 2 tbsp oil
Let's Learn How to make this daal:
- Soak the two lentils together in hot water for almost an hour. Drain rinse well and keep aside.
- Chop the onions, green chillies, ginger and garlic and keep them ready.
- Puree the tomato and keep aside.
- Pressure cook the dal with turmeric and salt and 3 cups of water till 3 whistles. Turn to slow heat and keep on the gas stove for another 5 to 7 minutes. Turn off and let it cool.Open the cooker when the pressure eases off. Check the consistency of the dal, it should be thick and should get mashed easily when stirred.
- In a wide and heavy bottomed pan, heat the oil. Add cumin seeds in it and let them splutter. Add bay leaves, green cardamoms, cinnamon sticks, pepper and let it release it's aroma for 10-12 seconds.
- Add in chopped ginger, garlic and green chilies. Let them fry for half a minute on low flame. Take care not to burn them.
- Add in chopped onions, mix and let everything cook for 5-6 minutes till onions turn little brown in color. Keep the flame on medium so they don’t stick and keep stirring frequently. Its an important step so have patience and let onion gets cooked properly.
- Now add in tomatoes, turmeric, red chilli powder, coriander powder and mix well. cook the paste, covered for about 3-5 minutes till tomatoes get mushy and cooked.
- Once tomatoes are cooked and the raw smell of the spices is vanished, add cooked daal into this and mix well. Check the seasoning at this point and adjust accordingly.
- Let daal simmer for another 10-12 minutes. Add garam Masala and turn off the gas.
- Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and sliced onions and serve hot with Naan, Paratha, roti or plain boiled rice.
- This daal is traditionally made thick so you could eat it with chapatti or roti. If you want to have it with rice, adjust the consistency accordingly.
- I usually mix both the whole black daal and the split blak daal along with some rajma when I make this daal. If you like , you can skip adding rajma to this.
- If you are cooking in a pan, soak both daals for at least 2 hours . Cook for 40-45 minutes covered with a lid. And after mixing with the tadka, let it cook for another 15-20 minutes to reach it's creamy consistency.