dal – Recipes for the regular homecook

Who doesn’t like a nice, steaming bowl of dal makhani? It is one of the most popular dal recipes of north India and so for a reason. Rich, creamy and utterly delicious, there is no reason to not make this dal makhani recipe at home.

This dal makhani is a regular at my house. While the traditional and authentic dal makhani (or dal Bukhara) recipe requires slow cooking for hours and an addition of a lot of heavy elements to it, this version is NOT that. This rendition is lighter, very simple and involves just 30 minutes of simmering.

Dal makhani literally translates to dal being cooked in makkhan or butter. Again, this recipe is very light on butter and cream. It is not as heavy as a restaurant version, but what I can say with all my confidence is that it is DELICIOUS! I get messages from so many of you asking for tasty and easy recipes. Well, there you go! Make dal makhani without getting intimidated by it and make it like a pro!

Preparation time – 30 minutes

Cook time – 40 minutes

Serves – 4 people

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

200 g black lentils
50 g red kidney beans
500 ml of water
2 onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
3 large tomatoes, pureed in a blender
2 tbsp ghee
Salt to taste
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
3 tbsp fresh cream
50 g butter
A handful of Kasuri methi
1 tsp garam masala
Salt to taste [/ingredients]

[directions title=”Directions”]

Thoroughly wash the black lentils and red kidney beans. Soak it overnight in water.
Drain the lentils and keep aside the next morning.
In a pressure cooker, put the black lentils and kidney beans. Add one tablespoon salt and water. Mix well. Let this cook for six to seven whistles. Set aside.
Heat ghee in a kadhai. Add the chopped onions. Saute till onions become translucent and start browning.
Once the onions are cooked, add the fresh ginger-garlic paste. Stir till the raw aroma of the ginger and garlic disappears.
Add the tomato puree and cook for about ten to fifteen minutes. The water from the puree needs to dry up completely and stir till oil starts to release from the paste.
Do not let this burn, cook in medium flame. Add warm water whenever necessary to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the kadhai.
Season with turmeric powder, Kashmiri red chili powder, coriander powder, and cumin powder. Mix well.
Pour in the pressure-cooked dal into this gravy and mix till it all comes together. Check salt and add if required.
Bring the dal to a boil and once it gets thick, add the cream and mix well.
Add the butter after the cream and mix well.
Next, add a handful of dried fenugreek leaves or Kasuri methi and give the dal one last stir before you let it simmer.
Cover and let the dal simmer in low heat for another 30 minutes.
Remove lid and season the dal with garam masala.
Pat a spoonful of ghee on top and enjoy hot with parathas or plain rice. [/directions]

I hope you do try this simple and mouth-watering dal makhani for yourself. You have to ensure that the lentils are soaked in water for at least six hours. And the simmering, in the end, is also required to get a thick and delicious consistency. A little bit of patience and you can have a wonderfully thick gravy in about an hour.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to reach out to me with a comment or connect with me on Instagram or Facebook.

Happy cooking!

Time is such a thing. Things which you thought would never change or you could alter about yourself end up being history. If I have to substantiate this with an example, I would use one which is food related. As a child or even during my teenage years, I had always detested certain kinds of food. But the passage of time and experience has made me value those very same things, which I enjoy now.

Kala chana (black chickpeas) is such an example. I have never really enjoyed Kala chana in a curry. The maximum I have gone is eaten it raw in a salad or a prasad. But now, I cannot get enough of it. It is one of my favorite kind of sprouts. Also because with time I have become wiser in terms of understanding what food is good for me, and how it can be made tasty.

You probably have seen a lot of Kala chana recipes on the internet. But trust me this one is different. The game changer is the use of curd. And oh, the results are absolutely stunning.

I invented this recipe a few years ago when I didn’t have anything else but some Kala chana at home. I was perhaps too broke to order in. As they rightly say, necessity is the mother of invention. And this splendid recipe emerged out of experimentation in the kitchen.

I usually enjoy Kala chana in its raw form. Assamese people have soaked Kala chana along with soaked moong dal as prasad. So I’ve been used to eating in that form since my childhood. I also enjoy it in my salads in its uncooked form.

But this dahi Kala chana curry makes me go weak in my knees. Made with ginger, garlic, garam masala, curd, tomatoes and lots of onions, I have been loving this sweet, spicy and tangy curry for a few years now. Adding that pinch of salt while boiling the chana in the pressure cooker makes a lot of difference.

The spices and condiments used in this are very basic and mostly lying around at home. The one big difference that makes this curry truly tasty is fresh garam masala. I make my own by dry roasting equal amounts of cardamom, cinnamon, and clove together. And the biggest secret to any good pulse curry is to add salt while boiling. The salt gets infused into every grain and makes a huge difference.

Before boiling the Kala chana, I soaked it in water overnight. Kala chana takes some time to soften so make sure you leave it in water for eight to twelve hours.

Preparation time – 20 minutes

Cook time – 60 minutes

Serves – 2-3 people

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

100 g Kala Chana
2 tbsp mustard oil
2 medium onions, ground to a paste
3 medium tomatoes, ground to a paste
1 tsp sugar
20 g fresh ginger garlic paste
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp black pepper powder
50 g thick curd
1 tsp garam masala
Salt to taste [/ingredients]

[directions title=”Directions”]

Soak the Kala chana in water overnight. Boil it with 1 tsp salt in a pressure cooker with about 500 ml water.
In a kadhai, heat some mustard oil. Once it starts smoking and acquires a pale yellow color add the onion paste.
Cook the onions gently till its raw aroma disappears. Add the ginger garlic paste to it.
For a sweet flavor, add some sugar. This will also give a beautiful caramelized color to the gravy.
Once the raw aroma of the onions and ginger and garlic disappears, add the tomato paste. Saute this till all the water from the tomato reduces and a thick paste gets formed. This step is absolutely crucial otherwise you will have a curry with raw tomato smell.
Season with salt, cumin powder (jeera), black pepper powder, turmeric powder, and coriander powder. Mix well till the spices completely assimilate with the rest of the ingredients in the masala.
Now add the boiled Kala chana and water to this cooked masala paste. Stir well and boil it in high heat till you get your desired consistency.
Beat the curd well in a bowl and add it to the gravy. Give it a good stir. Make sure you use good quality, thick and fresh curd for this.
Just before you take it off the stove, add the garam masala and give it one last stir.
Serve with roti, rice or pulao with onions and pickle. [/directions]