Gujarati Dal Recipe

Sweet, spicy and tangy, this Gujarati Dal is comfort food at its best! This thin consistency dal is tempered with lots of spices like cinnamon, cloves, cumin, mustard and flavoured with ginger, jaggery, lime juice. Best enjoyed with plain rice.

• 1cup Toor dal also known as arhar dal/pigeon peas lentil

• 5teaspoon salt divided, to taste

• 5tablespoons peanuts raw

• 3/4teaspoon turmeric

• 5-6cups water divided, 40-48 oz

• 1/3cup chopped tomato

• 1teaspoon grated ginger

• 1green chilli sliced, add more to taste

• 5tablespoons jaggery powder or a small piece of jaggery

• 3/4teaspoon coriander powder

• 1/4teaspoon garam masala

• 1/4teaspoon red chilli powder add more to taste

• 1/2teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder not hot, added for colour

• 2tablespoons lemon juice

Tempering/Tadka

• 2tablespoons ghee or oil

• 1/2teaspoon cumin seeds

• 1/2teaspoon black mustard seeds

• 1/2teaspoon fenugreek seeds

• 1/4teaspoon hing asafoetida, use gluten-free hing to make this gluten-free

• 4whole cloves

• 1inch cinnamon stick

• 8-10curry leaves

• cilantro chopped, to garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

1. To a pressure cooker, add toor dal/arhar dal along with 1 teaspoon salt, 3/4 teaspoon turmeric powder and 3 cups of water. Add 1.5 tablespoon peanuts to a small steel bowl and place it in the centre of the pressure cooker. You can also tie the peanuts in a muslin cloth.

Cook for 7 to 8 whistles on medium-high heat. Let the pressure release naturally. If using an Instant pot, pressure cook for 8 minutes on high pressure with natural pressure release.

2. Open the pressure cooker, carefully remove the bowl of peanuts using a pair of tongs and set it aside.

3. Add 2 to 3 cups more water (adjust according to consistency preference, Gujarati dal is supposed to be on the thinner side, so I recommend adding 3 cups of water here). Using an immersion blender, blend the dal until it’s uniform and you see no dal particles.

4. At this point, I transferred the dal from the pressure cooker to a pot on medium heat but you don’t have to do it. You can do the rest of the steps in the pressure cooker as well. Add the chopped tomato, grated ginger and sliced green chilli to the dal.

5. Now, add jaggery powder, coriander powder, garam masala, red chilli powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt (adjust to taste). into the dal. Give everything a good stir and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make the tadka.

Tadka/Tempering

1. To make the tadka, heat 2 tablespoons of ghee (or use oil) in a small pan on medium heat.

2. Once hot, add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, hing, cloves & cinnamon sticks. Let the seeds sizzle and mustard seeds pop. Add in the curry leaves. They will splutter a lot so move away from the pan as soon as you add the curry leaves. Remove pan from heat.

3. Pour the tadka over the pot of simmering dal. Add the lemon juice and also the boiled peanuts back into the dal. Garnish with cilantro and simmer for 2 more minutes! Serve piping hot.

Instant Pot Version

1. Add the dal along with salt and turmeric and the peanuts (place over trivet in a small bowl) to the steel pot of your Instant Pot. Close the lid and cook on high pressure for 8 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally.

Then press the sauté button and do the rest of the steps on sauté mode. Make tadka in a separate pan and pour over simmering dal.

NOTES

• Leftover dal can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. The consistency of dal will thicken so you will need to add water while re-heating. You can reheat in the microwave or in a pan on the stove top.

• If you want to store dal for an even longer time, you can freeze it in a freezer-safe bag.

• Skin hing (asafoetida) to make this recipe gluten-free.

• This is a thin consistency dal, so keep that in mind while making the recipe.

• If you don’t have jaggery, you can use sugar in place.

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