Arahar Dal

An easy toor dal (split pigeon peas) recipe cooked with ginger paste, tomatoes, and coriander leaves

  • Cooking time
    20 minutes
  • Calories
    kcal
Recommended by
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If we're being honest, arahar dal is not really a favourite in our house—that spot is probably reserved for shona moog dal, biuli, or chholar dal. However, we do make arahar dal quite often, if only to take a break from our everyday mosur, moog, and biulir (urad) dals. This version of arahar dal is fairly mild, best eaten with rice and a squeeze of lime, and, in this instance, some fried phool chingrir bora (fritters made from tiny shrimps).

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Ingredients

Serves
5 servings
  • 100 g arahar dal (toor dal/split pigeon peas)
  • 300 ml water
  • 10 g salt
  • 50 g tomato (halved)
  • 8 g mustard oil
  • 2 pcs dried red chillies
  • 1 pc bay leaf
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • 10 g ginger paste
  • 10 g sugar
  • 1 pc green chilli (slit)
  • 6 g coriander leaves
  • 1 tsp ghee

Method

  1. Soak arahar dal for 2 hours. Transfer to a pressure cooker with salt and tomato. Boil until dal is cooked.
  2. Heat mustard oil in a kadai. Temper with dried red chillies, bay leaf, and cumin seeds. Add turmeric powder and cumin powder. After a minute, add ginger paste. Sauté the spices on low heat for 2 minutes.
  3. Add the boiled dal and sugar. Bubble for a couple of minutes and add slit green chillies and chopped coriander leaves.
  4. Finish with ghee and serve hot.

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