Gujarati Daal

Dear Friends,

Daal/Soup is an integral part of our cuisine. It is lentil soup made in a traditional way. Gujarati daal is widely prepared by Gujarati’s around the world. This daal is mostly prepared during lunch and served with roti, rice and curried vegetable on the side. It is high in protein and prepared using 1 tsp of oil. This daal is very famous amongst other Indian too. The taste is slightly sweet, tangy and spicy. I am a big fan of this daal and whenever I prepare, I will atleast have 2 cups for myself…yummy 😛 😛 !! In India, we used to prepare everyday for lunch but now it’s a luxury since I don’t make it very often. This recipe serves 3 people.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Ingredients to pressure cook
1/3 cup toor dal/split lentils
10-12 peanuts
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
3-4 dry kokum slice (optional)

Other Ingredients
1/2 finely chopped tomato
1 inch cube of jaggery or 1 tbsp sugar
7-8 curry leaves
1 green chili
Few thin slices of ginger
1/4 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Small pinch of asafoetida
Salt to taste
Coriander/Cilantro leaves
lemon juice

For Tempering
1/2 tsp each cumin seeds and mustard seeds
Small pinch of asafoetida
Oil for cooking

Procedure

1. In a pot, mix all the ingredients to pressure cook, wash dal and add 2 cups of water. Pressure cook until 4 whistles. When pressure cooker cools down, remove pot from the cooker.
2. If you have added kokum before pressure cooking daal, remove it and leave on side.  Whisk boiled daal using hand blender or whisk. Add back kokum now. Add chopped tomato, jaggery, curry leaves, slit green chili, ginger slices, red chili powder, turmeric powder, small pinch of asafoetida and salt. Mix everything well. Cook daal on medium heat until it comes to boil and then lower the heat.

3. Now prepare tampering. In a small pan, add 1 tsp of oil. When oil heats up, add cumin seeds and mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds starts to pop, add small pinch of asafoetida and pour the hot mixture over daal. Mix well and let the daal simmer for few more minutes. 

4. Once ready, garnish with chopped fresh coriander/cilantro leaves., add lemon juice before serving. We serve this with roti, curried vegetable, rice and raita on the side.

You can adjust the thickness of the daal/soup as per your taste. Add more lentils if you like  thick consistency of daal. Try this healthy, nutritious and  aromatic soup and I am sure you will fall in love 🙂 !! It tastes best when it is hot.

TIP: Whenever I decide to make daal, I try to boil  double than what I need. Once it’s boiled, add all the ingredients and mix well. Divide in two, finish up cooking half daal for the same day and save the other half for mid week. When you want to prepare 2nd time, just boil dal and add the tempering. It saves a lot of time during the week.

Let me know if you have any questions regarding the dish. Your suggestion is welcome.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Happy cooking!

You can check out other famous Gujarati recipes on my blog!

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