Comfort daal recipe
A warming, comforting bowlful of lentil goodness, with a garlic, chilli and mustard tadka accompaniment. Serve with steaming hot Chapattis.
Ingredients
For the tadka- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 2 cm fresh root ginger, peeled
- 3 dried red chillis
- 0.5 tsp mustard seeds
- 0.5 tsp nigella seeds
- 0.5 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tomato, diced
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
- 120 g red split lentils
- 60 g moong daal (yellow ones)
- 600 ml water
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
- 0.5 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 green chillies, chopped
- 0.25 tsp sugar
- 1 lemon, juice only
Details
- Cuisine: Indian
- Recipe Type: Snack
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 25 mins
- Cooking Time: 45 mins
- Serves: 4
Step-by-step
- To make the tadka sauce: warm a frying pan on a medium heat and add the oil. When hot, pop in the onion and garlic, allowing them to brown and crisp at the edges.
- Add the ginger, chillies and all the seeds, then turn up the heat until the seeds jig and hop in the pan. Add the tomato, frying for a further 3–4 minutes until the ginger has softened and the tadka has dried a little.
- Season, take off the heat, cover immediately to retain the spice hit and leave to cool.
- To make the daal: soak both types of lentils for 15 minutes, then drain and rinse. Put in a pan with the water and bring to the boil.
- Add the garlic, turmeric, chillies and sugar, cooking for 25–30 minutes until the lentils have lost their shape and look mushy. Add water if it’s drying out; this dish needs to be loose and a little runny.
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