Toor Dal recipe

Fiona Staunton • September 16, 2020

Mastered my red lentil Dahl? Here is a creamy Toor Dal to try

Many of you will be familiar with my red lentil dahl, I still make this every week or 10 days but sometimes I like to make this Toor Dal. It is a very creamy dal. Traditionally in India dal is served on the side of a curry and rice, I tend to serve it on its own for lunch, almost like a soup. It can be referred to as Dahl, Daal or Dal!

Toor Dahl is made from split pigeon peas, it is known as Arhar Dal, Peeli Dal or Yellow Dal. I tend to buy mine in a large bag from my local Asian Supermarket and it is called "toor Dahl". It is the most common Dal found in Indian homes.

The lentils need to be soaked and washed first, 15-20 mins is fine here. Then you cook the lentils, I like to use the Instant Pot as it is nice and quick, then you cook up a Tadka with garlic and spices in Ghee and stir into the cooked lentils. The literal translation of Dal Tadka is Dal=lentil and tadka=tempering

Serves 6 as a meal or 8 as a side dish 30 mins

Ingredients

450g toor dal (or 2 cups)

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

160g Mango flesh chopped

2 Tbsp ghee

2 onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala

2 whole dried red chillies

2 green chillies, split

1 sprig mustard seeds

Method

Wash the lentils and cook with turmeric powder, sugar and salt. I tend to cook in the instant pot, allowing 2.5 cups of water to each cup lentils, cook on high pressure for 8 mins and allow to release naturally. If cooking in a saucepan, use 4 cups water to every cup of lentil and simmer for approx 35mins until lentils are soft.
Heat the ghee in a heavy based pan, add the onions and cook until soft, add garlic and ginger for another 2 mins, increase the heat a bit, add the mustard seeds, once they begin to pop add in the other spices.
Stir into the cooked lentils with the mango and enjoy!

Serving suggestion

Serve in a bowl as a comforting soup style lunch or serve on the side of your favourite curry and rice.

Storage

This keeps in the fridge for 4-5 days but freezes really well.