A delicious, simple Toor Dal from Maharashtra, where onions and garlic are cooked along instead of being sautéed. Definitely recommended to cook at home!
I wanted a dal from Maharshtra as a side dish for my recipe for stuffed eggplant (Bharli Vanghi). In the process, I discovered this one and everyone loved it! Here, the onions, garlic and some other ingredients are not sautéed, as is usually the case with most dals. Instead, they are simply pureed and boiled once with the previously cooked dal.
This time, I decided to puree the dal once after it was cooked, also briefly with a blender (before the other ingredients went in). This was definitely a good idea, the dal turned out nice and smooth and was great!
The eggplants tasted great with it, this dal surely also fits great with this recipe for beet root from Kerala.
Vatpachi Dal – Yellow toor dal with coconut
Ingredients
For the coconut paste
- ½ cup grated coconut
- 1 tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 1 onion small
- ½ Tbsp garlic
- small handful of coriander leaves
For the dal
- 1 cup toor dal
- 3 cups water
For the tadka
- oil
- ½ tsp mustard seeds brown
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 7-8 curry leaves
- pinch asafoetida powder
To taste
- water
- salt
- lime juice optional
Instructions
The coconut paste
- Put all the ingredients for the coconut paste in a blender and puree everything nice and fine.
The dal
- First, wash your dal thoroughly several times. This washes out any substances that are difficult to digest. It is also good to soak the lentils a little beforehand.
- Then cook the lentils until soft.The best way is to use a pressure cooker with 2-3 times the amount of water, until the pot has hissed 3x.
- I then pureed the lentils again, this gave them a nice and smooth texture.
The tadka
- In a small pan, fry your spices.First, add the mustard to some hot oil and turn the heat down a bit. When the mustard starts to splatter, add the cumin and cover the pan with a lid. Otherwise, you'll have mustard seeds all over the kitchen.
- After about half a minute, take the lid off, add the chilies, curry leaves, and asafoetida, and sauté everything together briefly.
Finishing
- After about half a minute, take the lid off, add the chilies, curry leaves, and asafoetida, and sauté everything together briefly.
- To this you add the coconut paste from earlier, stir everything well and season it with salt.
- I like a little acid in my dal, so I added some lime. The original recipe doesn't ask for it, though.
- Depending on how thick your dal has become and how you like it, you may want to add a little more water and boil it all together again.
- It pairs well with rice and Indian vegetable dishes. Above in the text I link you a few suitable recipes.
Please rate my recipe before you leave 🙂:
