Toor Dal
February 16th, 2007 filed under Dal (Lentils)
Indian recipes uses several different dals (lentils) witch are more native to India. Toor dal, also known as Arhar, is a popular dish in almost every household.
Below, I describe 2 different chaunk variations, one with added vegetables and another just with ghee (clarified butter).
Serves 2 to 4.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup toor dal
- 4 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (haldi)
- 1 tablespoon fine chopped ginger
- 1 teaspoon mango powder (amchoor)
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
Vegetable Chaunk version:
- 2 tablespoons clear butter (ghee)
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed (jeera)
- 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seed (rai)
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder (lal mirch)
- 2 bay leaves (tajpat)
- Pinch of asafetida (hing)
- 1 medium size chopped tomato
- 1 small zucchini chopped into 1 inch long cubes
- 6 string beans chopped about 1 inch long
Ghee Chaunk version:
- 2 tablespoons clear butter (ghee)
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed (jeera)
- 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seed (rai)
- 2 bay leaves (tajpat)
- Pinch of asafetida (hing)
- 4 whole red chili (sabut lal mirch)
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
Method:
- Wash dal, changing water several times until the water appears clear.
- Soak dal in 4 cups of water for 30 minutes or longer.
- In pressure cooker add dal, water, salt, turmeric and ginger, and cook on medium high heat.
- As the pressure cooker starts steaming turn the heat down to medium and cook for about 7 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and wait until steam has stopped before opening the pressure cooker.
- Mix dal well so there are no lumps. If dal is thick add more boiling water and make the consistency as you desire.
- Mix the mango powder and garam masala with a few spoons of water and add the mixture to the dal.
For vegetable chaunk:
- Heat the oil in a saucepan. Test the heat by adding one cumin seed to the oil; if it cracks right away oil is ready. Add hing, cumin seeds, mustard seeds.
- After seeds crack add bay leaves and chili powder, stir for few seconds and add the vegetables.
- Stir the vegetables and cook for 4 to 5 minutes till the vegetables are tender.
- Add vegetable to dal and mix gently.
Ghee chaunk:
Heat the oil in a saucepan. Test the heat by adding one cumin seed to the oil; if it cracks right away oil is ready.
Add hing, cumin seeds, mustard seeds. After seeds crack stir for few seconds and add bay leaves, whole red chili and paprika.
Stir for a second and add 1 tablespoon of water so mixture does not burn.
Pour th spice mix over dal.
Serve with steamed rice or any Indian bread.
I just tried the Chick peas with spinach dish. Came out great. Thank you Manjula Ji for your detailed presentation on video. I am a recently divorced man and my 15 year old son has just moved in with me, so I was looking for some way to cook different dishes for him and your website is a God send. I will definitely try out other dishes as well.
All the best and keep the recipes coming.
is masoor dal same as moong dal??toor dal is same dal known as moong dal???pls reply……lot of confusion
ni-00,
Masoor dal, Moong dal and Toor dal all three are different dals.
Oh my! Everything I make from your recipes turns out wonderfully!
I use canola oil instead of ghee and I finish off almost everything with fresh lime and cilantro. I had to have two helpings tonight!
Didnt have mango powder, added a cheeky bit of tamarind paste. incredible.
This has been a staple in our household for some time now. I really love this.
for dal ghee chaunk instad of paprika what we can use
Shobha,
I use paprika to give nice color to Dal, you can skip this, taste will be same.
Will substituting olive oil for ghee substantially change the dish? (I’m having cholesterol issues.)
Thank you.
Olive oil is fine, but canola is better (of all the vegetable oils it has the least amount of saturated fat).
Olive oil gets very hot very quickly, whereas canola or any of the vegetable oils are more heat tolerant. For doing the “chaunk” they work better because you can get them hot enough to sizzle to the seeds, but the oil won’t start smoking.
If you only want to use olive oil, you can. You just have to know it will get hot fast.
Carolg,
Olive oil will work.
It’s great to watch a master at work !
When I have dal from an Indian takeaway, it is very, very thin, very spicy and seems to have no lentils in it whatsoever. How can they call it a dal when there are no lentils in it ..? Do you think they whizz it all up in a food processer then water it down ? Would that explain why I can’t see any lentils in it ?
Do samosas have to be fried – can they be oven baked to save on calories? ta
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