Dal Tadka – Smokey and spicy like restaurants

Dal tadka is a popular lentil dish that most Indians make at home as well as order in restaurants. This dal tadka brings restaurant style flavours to your home. Made with toor(or tuvar) dal, mung dal and chana dal, so it is creamy and has texture variations to keep you excited. Make this for your family favourite for weeknight dinners or make ahead for easy meal prep.

What is Dal Tadka?

Daal/Dal is a common lentil dish from India that is a staple in most North Indian household. It’s usually made with very simple ingredients: lentils, onion, garlic, ginger, tomatoes and a few spices. Tadka is the tempering that your pour over the dal, once its made, sort of like a finishing magic touch that takes the flavour to the next level. You don’t want to skip it!

How to make Dal tadka?

Ingredients:

Dal/Lentils:

You can use WHATEVER lentils you have on hand. I used Toor dal (split pigeon pea), mung dal (split mung beans) and chana dal (split Bengal gram). But, you can use Masoor dal (split red lentils) as well and remove or keep any kind of dal you have at hand.

Aromatics:

I use red onions, fresh ginger and garlic and green chilli peppers. Of course, you can remove the chilli peppers if thats too hot for you (or hey, challenge yourself to up your heat tolerance 😉 ). You can also sub the fresh ginger and garlic for a store-bought ginger and garlic paste (easily found in Indian stores).

Tomatoes:

I like to use tomato puree because they feel more flavourful, especially during winters or you live in countries that offer only mediocre tomato varieties. You can easily use chopped tomatoes.

Spices:

Whole spices- Whole cumin seeds, Ground spices- Turmeric powder, red chilli powder and coriander powder are easily the 3 ground spices make the base of more north Indian dishes. Also, add Garam Masala at the end (since it is a pre-toasted spice blend. It doesn’t require cooking.)

Tempering:

The tempering is the magic touch at the end that takes your dal from mediocre to extremely good! So, you can add whatever you want to add that punch factor to your dal. I used whole cumin seeds, hing (asafoetida), dried red chilli peppers. You can also add sliced garlic, ginger julienned, crushed Kasuri methi, more red chilli powder for extra heat etc.

Smoking/Dhungar Method:

The charcoal method gives a smokey restaurant-style taste to the dal. But, if you don’t have charcoal or means to heat up a charcoal piece, just add smoked paprika to the dal or skip this step.

Do try this recipe out and let me know how you like it. If you have any queries, I’m here to help you out in the comments or or DM me my Instagram page.

If you don’t have the energy to make an elaborate dal recipe, check out this one pot dal recipe. Check out other hearty Indian dishes from the blog:

• Easy Chana Masala
• Vegan Paneer Butter Masala
• Vegan Palak Paneer

Dal Tadka

This dal tadka brings restaurant style flavours to your home. Made with toor dal, mung dal and chana dal, this creamy dal has texture variations to keep you excited. Make this for your family favourite for weeknight dinners or make ahead for easy meal prep.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 cup Toor dal 225 g
• 1/2 cup Mung dal 115 g
• 1/4 cup Chana dal 62 g
• 4-5 cups water
• 1 tsp oil
• 3-4 garlic cloves minced
• 1 knob ginger crushed
• 1 medium onion diced
• 3 green chilli peppers diced
• 1/2 cup of tomato puree/2-3 small tomatoes chopped
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 2 tsp garam Masala
• Salt to taste
• Dried Kasuri methi

For smoking:

• 1 piece charcoal
• 1 tbsp oil

For the tadka:

• 2 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp hing/asafoetida
• 2-3 dried red chillis
• Garnish
• Coriander leaves chopped
• 1/2 Lemon juiced

Instructions

 

• Wash the dals together, thoroughly in water until it turns almost clear.
• Add them to a pressure cooker or instant pot and cook for 10 minutes on high.
• In the meantime, heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and add 1 tsp of cumin seeds to it.
• Once it starts crackling and turning brown, add the crushed ginger and garlic to it and cook on low heat until the raw smell goes away.
• Add onions and green chilli to this and cook on medium-low until the onions turn golden and soft.
• Add the ground spices, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and coriander powder and mix well. Cook until the raw smell of turmeric powder goes away.
• Add the tomato puree or chopped tomatoes to this and cook until the tomatoes get cooked. Add salt at this point and mix well.
• Stir in the cooked lentils/dal to this mixture and cook for another 5 minutes until the flavour blend in together. Add dried Kasuri methi (if using) and turn off the heat.

For the smoking:

• Place a tall bowl in the pot of dal and then heat oil in a small pan.
• Heat the piece of charcoal on fire (be safe, friends) with the help of tongs. Place it in the bowl, pour hot oil on the charcoal piece and cover the pot to let the smoke make the dal smoky, about 5 minutes. Then take out the bowl and discard the charcoal.

For the tadka:

• Heat 2 tbsp oil in a small pan and add cumin seeds to it.
• Once it crackles, add the asafoetida and dried chillis and stir it. Take it off the heat before it starts burning and pour over the daal.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and lemon juice.
• Enjoy dal with basmati rice, roti and Indian pickle (achar).

Notes

If you are cooking dal/ lentils on a regular cookpot:

1. Soak the daal for 2-3 hours before cooking.
2. Drain and cook on a pot on medium heat with 4-5 cups of water.
3. Cook for about 45 minutes (add water when it starts getting dry) until they turn soft.

Keyword Daal, Dal, Dal tadka, Tarka dal

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!