Recipe- Popular Indian Comfort Food Dal Fry

Dal fry is a delicious lentil-based Indian curry. This is of the most popular Indian comfort food served along with rice or flatbreads. This is a vegan and protein-rich recipe.

Dal fry means cooked dal stir-fried in flavourful onion tomatoes ginger and garlic based tempering along with earthy spices. This is an easy and healthy lentil based curry.Dal is a staple food in India. Dal is prepared almost every day for meals and served along with rice or roti. Dal is considered to be the main source of protein for many vegetarians.

Ingredients

1 Cup Tur Dal / Arhar Dal (Split Pigeon Peas)
1 Cup Yellow Moong Dal (lentils)
1 Onion finely chopped
1 Tomato finely chopped
1teaspoon Mustard Seeds
1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds
2 Dry Red Chillies
5 Garlic Cloves roughly crushed
1 1/2 teaspoon Coriander Powder
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
1/4th teaspoon Hing (Asafoetida)
2 teaspoon Garam Masala Powder
1 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder
Salt as per taste
1 teaspoon Jaggery (optional) you can add sugar if you like. This is just to balance the flavour of dal fry.
2 tablespoon Oil
Coriander Leaves for garnish
Water

Method

- Wash and pressure cook toordal & yellow moong dal until 4-5 whistle.

- In a kadhai, heat oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and let them sizzle for a minute.

- Add hing (asafoetida), roughly crushed garlic & dry red chillies. Saute for a minute till raw smell from garlic fades away.

- Add finely chopped onions and cook till translucent.

- Once onions are translucent add finely chopped tomatoes, cook till tender.

- Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder, & garam masala powder.

- Mix all the masala well, add little water to incorporate the masalas into onion tomato mixture. Saute for a minute.

- Now add the cooked toordal.

- Add water and adjust the consistency of the dal as per your preference. Add salt and jaggery (optional) and mix well. Check for seasoning at this stage.

- Let the dal boil for 5-10 minutes on medium flame.

- Today we were having guest at my place, hence it just went a little extra mile and thought of giving a mild tadka / tempering over the dal.

- For that I heated a tablespoon of oil added cumin seeds and let them sizzled.

- Then I added one dry red chilli in the tadka.

- I immediately put off the flame after after the red chillies and waited for 30 seconds before adding a teaspoon of red chilli powder.

- My mild takda for dal fry is ready. I poured this tadka / tempering over the dal when serving.

- Dal Fry is ready.

- While serving sprinkle lemon juice and garnish with coriander leaves (cilantro)

- This Dal Fry goes very well with Tandoori Roti , Naan, Paratha & Jeera Rice.