Yellow Daal
After looking through a myriad of sites for the perfect daal recipe, I stumbled across the following recipe over at route79.com and I assure you it is a keeper. Better than most of the daal I have had at restaurants! Even the kids had thirds…
Yellow Daal
- 1/2 cup split yellow daal lentils (mung beans)
- water to cover by 1″
- 1/2 large sweet onion – finely chopped
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1.5 tsp. turmeric
- 2 tsp. garam masala
- 2 tsp. coriander
- 1/5 tsp. ground cumin
- 4 cloves garlic – diced
- approx. 1 tsp. shredded ginger
- 7 oz. diced tomatoes
- 2 Tbsp. butter
The original recipe has some approximations, but I have given you what we used. It also called for chilis, which would have been a great addition, but the girls wouldn’t have eaten it. It also calls for fresh coriander leaves to put on top, but I don’t have any of those around.
Wash the daal in cool water and strain off. Put it into a pot with enough water to cover it by an inch. Add all of the spices, onion, garlic and ginger (and chilis if using) – basically everything but the butter.
Cook it over medium-high heat, at a vigorous simmer for about 1 hour, checking it often to stir and add water as needed. It will cook off the water quickly, so you’ll need to add more. Our dal was softened after an hour, but yours may need more time. Cook it this way until the dal is softened and the sauce is thick.
When it’s done, add the butter (or ghee preferably) and let it melt in. Stir and serve!
~~ Some changes I will try next time: add potatoes. I really love daal with potatoes in it, but I’m not sure how traditional yellow dal is with them. I contemplated carrots too, but I actually stayed pretty strict to the recipe this time.
Tags: daal, dal, Indian cooking, yellow dal
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