Serves: 4 for a meal with steamed rice
Ingredients:
- Toor dal (split pigeon peas) + mung dal (petite yellow lentils/yellow split gram)- ½ cup
- Ghee – 1 teaspoon
- Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Cumin seeds- ½ teaspoon
- Chopped green chilli – 2
- Asafoetida/ hing – a pinch or two
- Chopped Tomato – 1 small
- Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon
- Chilli powder- ½ teaspoon
- Jaggery powder/ sugar/ honey – 1 teaspoon(Basically something to add a mild sweetness to the dal)
- Skinless Peanuts (roasted or plain) – 1 teaspoon(optional)
- Grated coconut- 1 teaspoon(optional)
- Salt to taste
Method:
- Wash and soak both types of dal for about 20 minutes.
- Drain and cook both types of dal together with turmeric, chilli powder and salt until well done and soft. You can do this in a pressure cooker for 4 whistles or any other way convenient to you.
- To a hot kadhai on low flame, add ghee followed by mustard. Let the mustard pop.
- Next, add cumin, green chilli, peanuts and asafoetida. Fry for a minute.
- Pour in the cooked dal, jaggery powder, chopped tomato.
- Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Turn off flame and add grated coconut.
- Enjoy with rice topped with a teaspoon of ghee.
Note:
- Alternatives to:
- Peanuts – sweetcorn on the cob cut into thick slices and cooked along with the dal.
- Ghee – Dal cooked in ghee tastes delicious. However, if you do not have ghee you can use butter.
- Yellow cucumber cut into batons or drumstick also add flavour to the dal (add these right after the mustard pops as it takes a while to cook). Alternatively, you could cook it separately and then add it to the dal.