Toor Dal
February 16th, 2007 filed under Dal (Lenthils)In India several different dals (lentils) are used. Arhar, also known as Toor dal, 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
- 1 tablespoon fine chopped ginger
- 1 teaspoon mango powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
Vegetable Chaunk version:
- 2 tablespoons clear butter (ghee)
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed
- 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seed
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
- 2 bay leaves
- Pinch of hing (asafetida)
- 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
- 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seed
- 2 bay leaves
- Pinch of hing (asafetida)
- 4 whole red chili
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
Method
Wash the dal, changing water several times until the water appears clear.
Soak the 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 dal and mix well.
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. Add dal and mix well.
Serve with steamed rice or any Indian bread. They both look and smell great.
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June 17th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Hello Jame, Paprika is just to give more color so you dont need to use, mango powder can be replaced with lemon juice and bay leave you can do without but I dont know any sustitue for it.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:01 am
Madam, instead of Paprika, Bay Leaves & Mango Powder, what are the other alternatives that we can use to make the toor dal. Pls reply with your experienced comments.
June 5th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
you can still cook dal will just take longer to cook.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:50 am
How can I make this if I do not have a pressure cooker? Can you just cook it for longer? I love dal!
April 27th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Lovely recipe as my Mum used to make.
April 20th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Your recipes are great. Thank you
April 20th, 2008 at 2:21 am
You have made Indian cooking so easy for a Chinese.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:50 am
This is indeed a wonderful website. I stumbled upon it looking for a simple Dal recipe, and couldn’t resist to try out a few of the others, too. I love the videos. You make veg Indian cuisine accessible to all, Manjula. Keep up the great work!
April 7th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
zuchchini is a courgette (in the UK)
Great website.
April 6th, 2008 at 7:04 am
hello Manjula,
I have been a fan for many months now. I am in love with your cooking and teaching style. I am slowly adding Jain cooking techniques to my repitoire of cooking. I especially am using seasonings and ghee/oil technique to my Caribbean style of curries. My one question today is what is the brand name of your cookware? The pans have a shape that I need but have not yet found, especially for stir frying. Please respond. Thank you.
Karen
March 27th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
hi manjula ji
you put pressure cooker with dal on medium high heat.then u say let it start steaming n then turn the heat down. ’start steaming’ means what?
we should wait for one whistle and then turn the heat down
thanx for your reply
March 27th, 2008 at 10:19 am
hi manjula ji
you put pressure cooker with dal on medium high heat.then u say let it start steaming n then turn the heat down. ’start steaming’ means what?
we should wait for one whistle and then turn the heat down
thanx for your reply
March 26th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Zucchini is also known as Italian summer squash
March 26th, 2008 at 12:11 am
manjula ji
what is zuchchini
March 21st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Hello Manjula!
Your recipes are fantastic! My husband and I love your samosas and potato curry especially. Could you please show us how to make tarka daal?
Thank you so much!
March 20th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Hello Manjula g,
I check your web site regularly and all your recipes are good, keep up the good work. I tried ur recipe for veg -cut let and bendi fry they tasted very good.
Thanks again for sharing all your years of experience in the kitchen with us.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Audrey,
As Manjula says you’ve got an internet problem: your connection is slow. Maybe you can download the video to your pc and watch it offline.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I’m not seeing any problems here. Have you verified that your internet is working properly? If the problem persists, please post this question to the discussion forum.
March 13th, 2008 at 8:38 am
I am so happy to learn of this site, but when I tried to view the video it stopped every 20 seconds. During that time (about 20 more seconds) there was a small circle of grey dots that kept moving. Is there any way you can fix this? Thanks.