Before I talk about my daal, I will tell you this is the EASIEST and QUICKEST Dal recipe you will find. Dal is a staple in every single desi household no matter where you go. It comes in different varieties and flavors with different daals and mixes of dals being used. Some like thick and chunky, others prefer a little thick and soupy, some like to use channa dal, others red and many toor. I am definitely a fan of the soupy category because I love to drown my rice in dal or even drink it as a protein-packed soup. For this recipe, I use a mix of red dal, channa dal, and toor dal. It gives the perfect blend of flavors and textures.

Making dal in the Instant Pot is such a life saver because instead of having to pre-boil the dal for hours, and then add ingredients and masalas separately, you can just throw everything at once into the Pot, cover, and let it cook and allow the flavors to blend together in a fraction of the time. Once the dal is soft, you can blend in the pot with an immersion blender (or transfer to a mixer or blender) and blend it all together. Add the tadka on the top and you have a pretty fantastic dal on your hands that was super straightfoward to make because let’s be real, who doesn’t crave mom’s dal chawal sometimes?

Dal is naturally gluten free, vegan and DELICIOUS. It is filled with all good-for-you things from the lentils and vegetables to the antioxidant filled spices like turmeric, cumin and coriander. If you are an Instant Pot fan, I think you will really like and appreciate this recipe. If you end of making this recipe, please tag me on IG @hungry.brown.girl ! Happy Cooking lovely!

Ingredients

• For the Tadka
• Oil
• 1 tsp Black mustard seeds (rai)
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds (zeera)
• 3 curry leaves (curry pata)
• 3 pods cardamom (optional)
• 2 pieces of kokum (Garcinia indica)
• For the Masala
• 1 medium tomato cut into fourths
• 1 small onion peeled and cut into fourths or half of a large onion peeled and cut into halves
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder (can use kashmiri mirch or paprika if you don’t want the spice)
• 1 tablespoon green masala (see recipe under “The Basics”)
• Salt to taste
• For the Dal
• 1/4 cup red dal
• 1/4 cup toor dal
• 1/4 cup channa dal
• 3-3.5 cups water depending on how soupy you like your dal

Instructions

• Wash red dal, toor dal, and channa dal and add into the Instant Pot
• Add in tomato pieces, onion pieces, green masala, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, red chili powder, salt
• Add in water and mix
• Cover with lid and seal
• Put Instant Pot on Pressure Cook for 15 minutes
• Once done, let it sit for 1 minute, then release the pressure valve to vent
• Open Instant Pot and blend everything together with an immersion blender until smooth consistency
• Can add additional water if you would like it to be thinner
• For the tadka, in a frying pan on the side, heat some oil on medium heat (I like to use enough oil to cover the bottom of the frying pan)
• Once the oil is hot, add in black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, cardamom pods, curry leaves, and kokum rinds and fry until cumin seeds are golden brown
• Add the tadka into the daal, mix in, and Enjoy 🙂