Vegetable Delicious
Urad Dal
a.k.a Maa di dal
(Black Lentils)
Ingredients:
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210g Urad dal (black lentils)
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1.33L water
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3 tsp. garam masala*
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½ tsp. turmeric*
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A pinch to 1/8 tsp. hot ground chili
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2 tsp. cooking salt*
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1 medium red onion
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1 clove garlic
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thumb size piece of ginger, peeled
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additional 1 ½ cups of water
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corriander leaves to garnish
*leveled with a straight edge knife
Method:
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Sort through the lentils and get rid of any grit. Put the lentils in a sieve and wash them under tap water. Washing and sorting through them is very important to get rid of any dirt/dust and grit because the last thing you want is to taste the dirt and bite on a bit of grit while you’re enjoying your dinner.
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Peel the onion, garlic and ginger and chop them up finely. Set aside.
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In a pressure cooker, add 1.33L of boiling water on a medium heat. Once the water is boiling in the pressure cooker (without the lid on) add in the lentils. Keep the lid off.
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After 10 minutes, add in all the spices. Run the lid of the pressure cooker under cool tap water and lock it in place on the pressure cooker and cook. Time for a total 15 minutes.
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While you are waiting for the pressure cooker, in a large pot sauté the onion mixture until caramelised.
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Once the time is up on the pressure cooker remove it off the heat and let out the steam. (Otherwise they will continue to cook in the steam).
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To the onion mixture add 1 ladle of the lentil soup without the lentils and an additional 1 ½ cups of fresh boiled water and stir. Simmer until it thickens.
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Once the water has thickened, add it back into the pressure cooker using a ladle and mix until it's completely combined in with the lentils.
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Place the pressure cooker back onto the medium heat, without the lid, and let it boil for 10 minutes. The lentils will be cooked when the soup no longer tastes like water.
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Serve ontop of basmati rice. Garnish with corriander leaves.
Cooked. Black lentils turn brown in colour once they are cooked
Uncooked black lentils.
Basmati Rice, cooked,fulfly and healthy!
This dish is absolutely delicious when paired with rice thats has peas and cumin in it. I ran out of peas so I didn't make the rice with peas and cumin seeds on this occasion. It's also a budget friendly, school and work friendly dish. Like most Punjabi dishes, this will last in your fridge stored in an air tight container for up to a week.
Growing up this was not my favourite lentil dish. Then I started making it on my own, and have discovered how to cook it perfectly, so that it tastes creamy and the lentils still hold together properly without them being hard or too mushy. I don't remember how mum cooked them. I do remember visiting a family friend when I was younger and they had made these lentils with cream in them and thinking it was so weird to add that in. A lot of people are doing that now. I don't know if they started putting cream in it because they couldn't cook it properly and couldn't get the creaminess in the lentils or if they just decided to try something new. Traditionally, it's not made with cream and it's much healthier this way. My recipe above, without cream, made the traditional way will definately taste creamy and also look creamy provided you don't skip the boiling at the end.
These lentils are also traditionally cooked with red kidney beans thrown into the mix. I normally cook them without the red kidney beans because I always forget to soak them the night before.
ENJOY!~
#vegetabledelicious when sharing, Thank you