Masoor ki Daal… (Red Lentil Daal)

One of my all time favourites… Masoor ki daal and so easy to make!! 

What you need… 

 Ingredients for Tholka

About 250g of Masoor daal …red lentils 

Half a tin of chopped plum tomatoes. 

Generous bunch of fresh coriander. 

Huldi …turmeric. 

Garam masala. 

Stuff you can use but don’t have to… 

Half a lemon 

3/4 tablespoon of jeera or dried coriander seeds. 

Two juicy tomatoes! …plum are good! 

 Pressure cooker is quicker but not essential… a big cooking pot will be just fine.

this will make enough for 4 to six generous helpings! 

 What you need to do… 

The Masoor will take a few hours to cook properly; this can be done early and you can go off and do something else! 

Wash the Masoor daal in the pot first… pour cold water, swirl and the water will become cloudy, carefully drain. Repeat until the water is almost clear! 

Add about three to four times as much cold water into the pot with the Masoor. 

 Place on a low heat, add a teaspoon of huldi, cover and cook…if the heat is not low, it WILL boil over so you may want to not completely cover it. 

If the water boils away, add more HOT water so it can keep simmering.
This needs to be done until the Masoor pulverises …also you will see the water is not separate from the Masoor.. It will look like yellow soup!

(this will take a couple of hours) 

 At some point while the Masoor is cooking…
Fry the Tholka in another smaller pan… Its nice to double the amount of onion and slice it rather than finely chop it! and you can try chopping the ginger slightly chunkier!…you can do it how you want to and the taste and texture will change… Try it! 

When the Tholka is nearly fried, add half a teaspoon of huldi and the jeera/coriander seeds if you choose… 

Fry for a few more minutes on moderate to low heat. 

Add the tinned tomatoes and continue to cook… Stirring until it reduces slightly. 

Once the Masoor are cooked, keep it on a low heat… 

Add a tablespoon of garam masala, the juice of the lemon (throw the lemon in once squeezed) and stir into the daal completely. 

Add the Tholka mix, stir in and simmer… essentially it is ready but cooking it further will enhance the flavours.

Squeeze the lemon to remove the daal and remove it! 

 Chop the coriander and stir into the daal. 

 Add at least a tablespoon of salt.. and taste as you go…if it doesn’t taste right, it’s probably the salt! 

Chop the fresh tomatoes and stir them in.

R

emove from the heat! 

 What to do next… 

Depending how runny it is.. You can have it in different ways… boil for longer if you want to reduce it or add hot water and simmer if you want it runnier! 

Serve it with rice, roti, paratha, pitta bread, naan or have it just by itself! Spicy mango pickle in oil is great with this too! 

Plain yoghurt is lovely on the side! 

Most importantly… Eat and share!

As a child I used to break up roti into small pieces and mix it into the daal and then eat it out a bowl! 

 
Btw this freezes well!

Enjoy!

For a single serving…