Tarka Dal
photo by Stardustannie
- Ready In:
- 1hr 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 18
- Serves:
-
4-6
ingredients
- 2 cups channa split lentils or 2 cups yellow split peas
- 1⁄4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seed
- 5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons ginger, finely grated
- 10 fresh curry leaves
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 2 tomatoes, finely chopped
- 1⁄4 cup raw cashews, finely ground (cashew meal)
- 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1⁄2 cup vegetable stock
- 45 g ghee
- 1⁄2 cup pouring cream
- 1 tablespoon chopped coriander (as garnish)
directions
- Rinse lentils in a strainer using cold water. Pick-over and discard any bad looking lentils. Then place them in a bowl and cover with cold water to soak for half an hour.Drain in the strainer and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a large frypan over a medium heat. Add half the mustard seeds and half the cumin seeds. Stir for 1 to 2 minutes until they start popping.
- Add the garlic, ginger, curry leaves and half the onion. Stir until soft- about 8 minutes.
- Add the tomato, cashews, turmeric, garam marsala, ground chilli, ground coriander and the vegetable stock. Stir occasionally until thick- roughly 5 minutes.
- Add lentils and enough water to cover the lentils (about 1.5 litres). Bring to the boil and then reduce heat to low. Stir occasionally until the lentils are cooked through and tender - about 1/2 hour.
- In a seperate pan- heat the ghee and add the remaining spices. Stir for a couple of minutes, until fragrant. Add the remaining onion and stir until the onion is golden.
- Combine the onion mix with the lentil mix.
- Add the cream bring to the boil.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- To serve sprinkle chopped coriander over the top.
Questions & Replies
Got a question?
Share it with the community!
Reviews
-
It is a very good recipe and rather authentic, just as good, if not better than from an Indian restaurant. It was a bit too much for us, I made for my DH, a friend and myself and there is a least about second time for all of us so I will half it next time. <br/><br/>I made it with yogurt rather than cream because I discovered that the creme I had in the fridge had gone bad, but it was even really good with the yogurt and probably will do it with that again to cut down on fat. I used dry curry leaves because I am not aware of anywhere that has fresh curry leaves here, but I don't think that this impacted the flavour as I could taste it just fine. Thanks for sharing! Made for ZWT 8!
-
Thank you for the recipe. I highly recommend it as it is easy to follow. It has an authentic taste to it. It is quite of a big portion enough for about 4 - 5 people, you can half the recipe if you want a smaller portion. I made it around 3 times now. Myself, my family and friends love it! So delicious.
see 3 more reviews
Tweaks
-
I used Chana Dal and I find that I have to add a little bit more water while the lentils are on simmer (they absorb water, get very thick and can burn in the bottom of the pan). I stir every 10 minutes or so. I didnt have cream so used a low fat natural yoghurt which also tasted great! I used dried curry leaves as I couldn't find a fresh one. Also be careful about the Mustard Seeds. Second time I made it, I mis-read the recipe and put 2 Tablespoons rather than Teaspoons. It made it really bitter to a point that it's almost not edible.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Jubes
Australia
Aussie Mum - gluten-free