Everyone's cooking dal. What’s not to love? Cheap, readily available and utterly comforting with spices and vegetables, this Indian curry has us all captivated. If this is you, now is the time to understand this store cupboard ingredient better and experiment with techniques and recipes.
Dal is always made of lentils so Lentil Dal isn’t a thing. It’s also simply Dal or Daal, not Dhal or Dahl. It is scooped over rice or served alongside flatbreads for dunking, but you can drink it like soup if that tickles your fancy. There are several varieties, all with their own quirks and cooking times. As a rule, the longer a lentil takes to cook, the more the need for it to be soaked. Dal freezes really well, so stash away extra for a rainy day.
The key to dal is the tempering of spices that finishes off the bubbled lentils. You can make a sizzling tempering to pour on top of your cooked lentils or make a more substantial vegetable sauté to stir your lentils into. Rarely ever do we forgo a tempering, although my mum does have a cheeky one pot version my kids love. The one crime never to commit in dal is to add vegetable stock – it doesn’t need it at all!
Here are eight essential dal recipes to get you experimenting with techniques and different types of lentils:
Simplest Dal
A family recipe, this dal uses red split lentils and demonstrates the technique to get smooth, thick lentils that can form the basis for all manner of ingredients. Asafoetida infuses the tempering or tadka with wonderful buttery onion flavour, but if you don’t have it, just leave it out.
You can find the full recipe here.
One-pot vegetable dal
My mum’s no-tempering-needed dal, this one packs a load of flavour into yellow moong lentils in the guise of fresh ginger, garlic, tomato and onion, and the sprinkling of garam masala, chilli powder or flakes and fresh coriander at the end. Yellow moong is really easy to cook and doesn’t need pre-soaking, or you can use red lentils as a substitute.
You can find the full recipe here.
Vegan greens dal
Called Saag Wali Dal, this recipe uses yellow moong lentils, and is a boon for finishing up half used bags and portions of kale, spinach and spring greens. Look out for fresh or frozen fenugreek, which works a treat here. I love a dash of ghee or butter in dal normally, but you can leave it out in this one.
You can find the full recipe here.
Dal with oranges
Another gem from my mum, this light, fresh and fruity dal is infused with the citrusy flavour of oranges. On warmer days, it’s great with some steamed white basmati rice and a mixed veg salad.
You can find the full recipe here.
North Indian Spinach Dal
More a substantial veggie side, than a dal, per se, this hearty bowl of lentils nestled in spinach, spiked with dark warming spices, tomato and onion is addictive. The two lentils use here – pigeon pea and split Bengal gram – do benefit from soaking for at least an hour before cooking to speed things up.
You can find the full recipe here.
Punjabi Dal Fry
A Dhaba, or North Indian roadside restaurant, special, this thick, luscious dal is very moreish. You can cook up spinach, cauliflower, peas, carrots and any other vegetables you have lying around in the tomato paste. If you buy a tin of brown lentils, the tempering is probably the best one to mash its contents into.
You can find the full recipe here.
Squash and aubergine dal
From the state of Orissa in the East of India, this can be best described as tadka dal meets stew, with the added one pot meal goodness of vegetables cooked in it and then the whole lot smothered with whole and freshly ground spices. Dalma puts a very popular Bengali spice mix to excellent use: Panch Phoron. Literally meaning “five whole spices”, it is a collective of cumin, brown mustard, fenugreek, nigella and fennel seeds.
You can find the full recipe here.
Gingered whole moong dal
One of my favourite winter dals, this warming protein packed wonder is great with thick flatbreads like naan. Whole moong is yellow moong with its husk (skin) on. It needs pre-soaking before cooking, so do factor that into your prep time.
