Tita'r Dal

Moong dal cooked with bitter melon and bottle gourd, flavoured with ginger, ghee and coconut

  • Cooking time
    30 minutes
  • Calories
    kcal
Recommended by
97.0
%
of
4581
viewers who rated this recipe on Youtube

This is a wonderful Bengali moong dal recipe for the spring-summer months. It is light, mellow, nutritious, and delicious.

Books in this recipe

No items found.
Like the work we do? Help keep this site ad-free by making a donation.
Donate

Ingredients

Serves
5 servings
  • 250 g lau (bottle gourd)
  • 50 g korola (bitter gourd)
  • 100 g moong dal
  • 550 g water (for boiling dal)
  • 25 g mustard oil
  • 1 pc dried red chilli
  • 1 pc bay leaf
  • ½ tsp shorshe (mustard seeds)
  • ½ tsp methi (fenugreek seeds)
  • 40 g grated coconut
  • 40 g ginger paste
  • 8 g ghee
  • 13 g salt
  • 30 g sugar

Method

  1. Wash and rinse the dal thoroughly, and boil until the grains are soft (but still whole).
  2. Cut korola in rings. Cut lau into 4-cm chunks.
  3. Transfer lau to a saucepan. Add just the amount of water that is needed to submerge the chunks. Cover and steam for 8 minutes. The lau should be around 90% done, not fully cooked and mushy. Drain and set aside.
  4. Heat mustard oil in a kadai. Add korola and fry till golden (4 minutes). Set aside.
  5. Temper the same oil with dried red chilli, bay leaf, mustard seeds, and fenugreek seeds. Once the spices turn aromatic, add grated coconut. Fry till coconut turns light brown (2 minutes).
  6. Add half of the ginger paste; reserve the other half for later. Fry until it turns slightly golden.
  7. Add fried korola, and the boiled moong dal. Season with salt and sugar.
  8. Add boiled lau. Bubble for a few minutes and add the remaining ginger paste.
  9. Finish with ghee, and serve hot.

Recipe discussion

Did this recipe help you cook something that made you happy?

At Bong Eats, we are working to standardise Bengali recipes, and present them to the world in a way that anyone, anywhere will be able to cook Bengali food with confidence—even if they have never tasted it before. We want the world to know that there is Indian food beyond tikka masala.

A lot of time and money goes into creating precise recipes such as this one. We don't want to depend on advertisements that track our viewers' activities through third-party cookies; we do not want take sponsorship money from companies that don't make subpar products.

You can help us make this a sustainable venture that can employ talented local writers, editors, photographers, recipe-testers, and more. Donate to keep us going.

Make a One-time donation

Help us keep Bong Eats free and open for everyone by making a one-time contribution. You can donate as much as you want. No amount is too little.

Donate
Become a member ⭐️

Join to get access to a vibrant private community of people who full of people who love to cook, feed and eat. Get answers to your questions about recipes, techniques, where to find ingredients from fellow members. If you love cooking, this is the place for you.

Monthly LIVE cookalongs
Shiny new private forum
Adda after every video release
Personalised recommendations
✨ See Membership Perks ✨
OR
Art by Ritwika
A fun, private community for enthusiasts of Bengali food

We're building a community

With Bong Eats adda we are trying to create a quiet corner on the internet for people who love nothing more than cooking and feeding people. The focus is naturally on Bengali and South Asian food, but as anyone who has spent time with food and its history knows, everything in food is interconnected. Nowhere is this more true than in Bengal, the melting point of so many cultures of the world—home to the first "global cuisine", as food historian Pritha Sen puts it. If that sounds like just the place you have been looking for, come help us build this space together. We are just getting started.

Join now
Join our 2000+ strong community

🧣 Winter 🫛

Bakes & Roasts

Posted on
December 21, 2023
by
Bong Eats

Winter is here. It is time to get baking. Here are some ideas, both savoury and sweet.

Read More »

✨ What's new?

View all »

Mooli ke Parathe

Flatbread stuffed with winter radish

  • 60 mins
  • 408
    kcal
Viewers liked this
%

Bota-soho Begun Bhaja

Fried brinjal with stalk on

  • 20 mins
  • 104
    kcal
Viewers liked this
%

Peyajkoli Bhaja

A stir-fry with onion-blossom stalk

  • 40 mins
  • 160
    kcal
Viewers liked this
%

Bhetki Machher Jhol

With winter vegetables

  • 45 mins
  • 208
    kcal
Viewers liked this
%
See all New recipes »
More
moog dal
recipes
View all »

Panchmishali Dal

This is the summery version of everyone's favourite 'bhaja' (roasted) mooger dal, this time loaded with a variety of summer vegetables

  • 40 minutes
  • 130
    kcal

Tita'r Dal

Moong dal cooked with bitter melon and bottle gourd, flavoured with ginger, ghee and coconut

  • 30 minutes
  • kcal

Kacha Moog-Mosur Dal

An easy and hearty Bengali moog-mosur dal with ripe winter tomatoes and fresh coriander

  • 30 minutes
  • kcal
More
bitter
recipes
View all »
No items found.