Dal with coconut milk is a dish that I make often in our home. Pair it with spicy stir-fry and rice, you got yourself one healthy and yummy meal. Mom, Mompa and Iamai all are vegetarians so dal appears frequently in the menu. As far as I can remember they cook dal and temper it. Even though it is good in taste and nutritious, plain tempered dal becomes boring after a while. I never questioned them about their methods in preparing dal. When I got my own kitchen and had some basic knowledge about what flavours work together, I started experimenting. This is one such recipe.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup Split pigeon pea lentils/Toor dal
- 2 cups Water or as needed
- 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric powder
- 2 pinches Asafoetida
- 4 teaspoons Oil
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 4 Red chillies
- 3 cloves Garlic, peeled and chopped
- 1/4 cup Coconut Milk(*refer notes)
- 1/2 teaspoon Mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon Split and skinned black gram/Urad dal
Preparation:
Wash and soak the dal for about 30 minutes. Drain the water, transfer the dal to a saucepan filled with water. Add turmeric, asafoetida, 2 teaspoons oil. Bring it to boil over a high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let the lentils cook till the dals turn soft. Add salt and give it a quick mix.
While the lentils are cooking, take cumin seeds, red chillies and garlic in a blender and grind it coarsely. Add the ground mix to the dal.
Add coconut milk. Stir them all together. Cook for another 2-3 minutes and take it off the heat.
Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a small pan over medium heat and temper mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves.
Pour it over the dal and serve hot with rice.
Notes:
- Cooking time and water required may vary depending on the variety of dal you are using.
- After the dal is cooked, make sure it does not stick to the bottom of the pan.
- The same recipe can be used for Split and skinned green gram/Moong dal, Split and skinned red lentils/Masoor dal or Bengal gram/Channa dal.
- Alternatively, you can grind 1/4 cup grated coconut along with cumin seeds, red chillies and garlic or use 2 tablespoons of coconut cream.
