Daal Chawal (Lentils & Rice)

Name: Daal Chawal (Lentils & Rice)
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Pakistani
Ingredients: 190 g Red lentils (masoor daal); 720 ml Water; ½ tsp Turmeric powder; 1 Tomato, chopped; 2 Green chillies, slit; 1 tsp Salt; 3 tbsp For the tarka: oil; 4 cloves Garlic, sliced; 1 small Onion, sliced; 1 tsp Cumin seeds; 2 Dried red chillies; ½ tsp Red chilli powder; 380 g cooked Basmati rice, cooked, to serve

The comfort plate the whole subcontinent grows up on: red lentils simmered soft and golden, finished with a sizzling tarka of garlic, cumin and dried chilli in hot oil, and spooned over plain basmati rice.

Fuente

Receta de Pakistani home kitchens · 🏺 Tradicional · Everyday cooking of Pakistani households, shared across Punjab, Sindh and the wider subcontinent.

Subcontinental home cooking · dal — An ownerless everyday dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article documents dal as split pulses cooked to a thick, spiced stew across the subcontinent, and the tempering (tarka/tadka) of spices in hot fat poured over at the end. Quantities and method here are this book's own; the cook-along is a verified Food Fusion daal-chawal video.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

Food Fusion Village Hut Muhammad Danial

⏱ 45 min🍽 4 porciones🔥 340 kcal🇵🇰 Pakistán🌶️

HalalVegetarianoVeganoSin glutenSin lácteosSin frutos secos

Pasos

Rinse the lentils until the water runs clear. Put them in a pot with the water, turmeric, tomato, green chilli and salt, bring to a boil, then simmer partly covered for 25–30 minutes, stirring now and then, until they collapse into a soft purée.
💡 Skim off the pale foam that rises in the first few minutes; it makes the daal taste cleaner.
Whisk the daal with a spoon or a hand whisk to the creaminess you like — smooth or a little chunky. Loosen with hot water if it has gone too thick, and keep it warm.
Make the tarka: heat the oil in a small pan until hot, add the cumin, then the garlic and onion, and fry until the garlic is deep golden. Take it off the heat and stir in the dried chillies and chilli powder for 5 seconds.
💡 Chilli powder burns in a blink. Add it off the heat so it colours the oil without turning bitter.
Pour the sizzling tarka straight over the pot of daal — it should hiss. Stir half of it in and leave the rest on top. Serve over hot basmati rice.

💡 Consejos

The tarka is the whole personality of a daal. The same pot of plain boiled lentils becomes a different dish depending on whether you sizzle garlic, cumin, curry leaves or fried onion into it.
Serve with plain yogurt, sliced onion, green chilli and a lemon wedge on the side — the standard daal chawal plate, and each cuts the softness of the lentils differently.