Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Dal Tadka - My simple version

Dal is THE comfort food for many people. Like others, we too enjoy a simple dinner of Rice and Dal :). It is just heavenly when you taste home cooked simple dal and rice after a busy and a tiring day at work. DH loves dal /blush and he is the most happiest person at home when the menu for the day has DAL....Its a surprise dinner for him today with his favorite food. Lets take a look at Dal Tadka - My simple version.


Ingredients:

  • Toor Dal - 1/2 cup
  • Tomatoes - 2 medium sized (I used grape tomatoes)
  • Salt - To taste
  • Water - 2 cups

For the seasoning:

  • Ghee / oil - 1 tbsp (I used coconut oil)al cooks fast and gets really
  • Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
  • Cumin seeds / jeera - 1 tsp
  • Asafoetida - A pinch
  • Curry leaves - a few
  • Cilantro - Finely chopped for garnishing
  • Dry Red chillies - 3-4
Method:
  • Soak the Toor dal for 15 min. By doing so the dal cooks faster and gets really mushy. 
  • Add salt, tomatoes and pressure cook for about 4-5 whistles.


  • For the seasoning, take a tadka pan and add the ghee/ oil. I used coconut oil to get an authentic south Indian taste.
  • Add the mustard seeds and allow it to pop. Then add cumin seeds, dry red chilies, asafoetida and curry leaves.
  • Pour the tadka/seasoning into the cooked dal and mix well.
  • Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with basmati rice or phulka rotis. 
  • Enjoy!!
Notes:
  • You can use ghee or any kind of oil suited to your taste.
  • You can choose to add tomatoes or make a plain dal without any veggies which would taste just as fine.
  • You can even use moong dal or masoor dal/red lentils for this dal tadka.




3 comments:

Vimitha Durai said...

Perfect for chapathis. Nice one

Priya Suresh said...

Simple but yet a comforting food..

Anonymous said...

Yummy. But I like it with over cooked rice and rasam. If there was potato curry, papads and mango pickle them it would be feast:)
Saranya