Dhal Recipe - Simple and Easy to Prepare

My second post explained what and where to buy the basic ingredients for a simple rice and Dhal dish. Here is a recipe I learned from my Nepalese friend.

Dhal Indian Style:

Ingredients:

1 cup lentils
1 tomato or half a tin of cooked tomatoes
3 - 4 cups of water
Salt to taste
1/2 an onion - could use a whoe onion if you like
2 or 3 garlic cloves or 1 or so teaspoon of garlic paste
about 1 tablespoon of Ghee or butter
Cooking oil 
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of Turmaric
1 teaspoon Cummin seed or ground cummin
Chilli to taste - I use 2 or 3 dried chilli or you could use 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes


Method:

Place lentils, water, salt and tomato in to a medium size saucepan. Bring to boil and simmer for approximately 10 - 15 minutes stirring regularly to prevent it from sticking to pan (although I haven't found that to be a problem using a stainless steel pan). When the lentils are soft it is basically cooked. I then run a Bar Mix through the lentils to break it down a little more. When finished it will have a similar consistency to split peas in a Pea and Ham Soup but a bit thinner. Put the pan aside.

Chop onion finely and saute with garlic in a pan with a splash of oil until soft. Add to the cooked lentils and stir in.

In another pan (I use a lager pan with non stick coating) heat the ghee or butter. Add turmaric, chilli and cummin seed and cook for about 30 seconds or so on a low to medium heat.

Pour the cooked dhal into this pan, mix with the spices and allow to simmer for a minute or two.

That's it. Enjoy with a bowl of rice and some optional side dishe(s) or you could dip bread into the dhal mix. The photo above is the dhal just prepared. Not a fancy photo but you get the idea. yumm.

When adding to rice, the dhal mix is best watered down a little to help keep the rice moist. Just pour some dahl into a microwave dish, add a little water and mix in and heat for serving. The remaining dhal can be stored in the fridge for the next meal.

You can add some cooked vegetables and or a serve of cooked chicken or other meat as a side dish. Experiment with cooking your meat and the vegetables with different spices. There are numerous recipes and videos online.