Tadka Dal – Lentils cooked till mushy with ginger and garlic and tempered with a tadka of ghee flavored with cumin, curry leaves, and dry red chili and served over rice with extra ghee!! This is what it means by comfort food!! This is my all-time comfort food and I bet everyone will agree with me!! I just love having it with either chicken or potato fry and rice!!!
This recipe is just very simple yet nutritious and protein-packed. I’ve used a combination of moong dal and toor dal but feel free to mix up the with whatever dal you have in your pantry. I’ve used shallots here as I love using them in my recipes but again it’s optional. You can just chop up a red onion and use it.
But make sure you use pure ghee for the seasoning or tadka as it brings out the flavor and taste of the dal. And yes not to mention garlic is a must-no leaving it out! So simple comforting and yet soo satisfying with either rice or roti!!
Here you go with the recipe:
Ingredients:
Shallots – 5-6 chopped fine / onion – 1 chopped fine
Tomato- 2 finely chopped
Tuvar dal – 1/2 cup
Moong dal- 1/2 cup
Garlic – 6 – 8 pods chopped very fine or smashed with a back of a spoon
Red chilli powder/ paprika- 1/2 tsp
Cumin Powder – 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Dry red chili – 3-4
Asafoetida – a pinch (optional)
Curry leaves -few
Ghee -3 tbsp
Oil- 1 tbsp
Method:
Wash and soak both dals in water for 10-15 mins.
In a pressure cooker/ instant pot heat oil and sauté the onion till soft add garlic and sauté for a min. Then add the tomatoes and mix well. Add in the red chili powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, and salt.
Add the soaked dals with 21/2 cups of water and pressure cook till it’s completely mushy and soft.
Once the dal is cooked make the Tadka.
Heat ghee in a Tadka pan, add the cumin seeds, dry red Chili’s/ a pinch of red chili powder, curry leaves. Once the cumin seeds start to splutter add the asafoetida ( as soon as you add asafoetida quickly at once add the Tadka to the dal. Don’t let the asafoetida sit too long in hot Tadka.
and quickly pour the Tadka on the dal and mix well. Serve hot with rice, papad, and roti.