To make panchmel dal (literally, “five-blend” dal), I take equal quantities of these five legumes: toor dal, masoor dal, yellow moong, chana dal, white urad dal.

Feel free to change things up – vary the proportions, use black urad in place of white, add a dash of green moong. This is a flexible, forgiving recipe – do what you will, it tastes delicious anyway!

You Need:

[For 3-4 servings]

For the five-legume mix:

• Toor dal – 1/5 cup [buy here]
• Chana dal – 1/5 cup [buy here]
• Moong dal – 1/5 cup [buy here]
• Masoor dal – 1/5 cup [buy here]
• Urad dal – 1/5 cup [buy here]

For the masala:

• Tomatoes – 2 medium
• Fenugreek leaves* – 50 grams
• Ginger – 1-inch stick
• Green chili -1, slit vertically
• Salt – 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
• Red chili powder – 1/4 teaspoon [buy here]
• Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoon [buy here]
• Coriander seeds – 1 teaspoon [buy here]
• Green cardamom – 1 [buy here]
• Cinnamon – 1-inch stick [buy here]
• Cloves – 3 [buy here]
• Cumin seeds – 1/2 teaspoon [buy here]
• Oil – 1/2 tablespoon

*If fresh fenugreek is not available, replace with a tablespoon of kasoori methi.

For the tadka:

• Dry red chilies – 2, broken
• Garlic – ~1 teaspoon, finely chopped
• Ghee – 1 tablespoon

For garnishing:

• Fresh coriander leaves – a few sprigs, chopped

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How To Make Panchmel Dal:

1. Prep the legumes

Place all the five dals in a large container or bowl. Wash the dals in several changes of water till the water runs clear.

Pour three cups of plain water into the container for soaking the dals. Set aside for two hours.

After two hours, the dals would have swelled somewhat. Drain the water and move on to the next step: make the masala base.

2. Make the masala base

Roughly chop the tomatoes. Scrape and crush or finely chop the ginger.

If using fresh fenugreek, pluck the leaves and chop them coarsely. Discard the stems.

Heat half a tablespoon of oil in the pressure cooker. Add the following spices to hot oil (turn down the heat to minimum when you do this): cumin seeds, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon stick, coriander seeds. Stir around as the whole spices toast and sizzle – be careful to not let anything burn.

As soon as the cumin seeds turn color (this will take only a few seconds), add the chopped ginger and slit green chili to the oil.

Follow with chopped fenugreek and turmeric powder. Stir around to mix everything with the toasted spices.

Turn the heat up again and add chopped tomatoes, red chili powder and salt.

Cook till the tomatoes are slightly mushy.

3. Boil it all together

Transfer the soaked dals to the pressure cooker.

Fry the dals along with the masala base for two minutes.

Pour three cups of water into the dal. Add salt to taste

Lock the lid of the pressure cooker and set the heat to high till you get the first whistle. Set the heat to low and cook for another ten minutes.

Switch off the heat and let the pressure cooker release its steam naturally till the lid comes off without effort. Unlock the lid and this step and mash the dal lightly. Stir in fresh coriander leaves.

We are now ready for the final step – the tadka.

4. Do the tadka

Heat ghee in a tadka ladle on low heat.

When the ghee is hot, tip into it minced garlic and dry red chilies.

As soon as the garlic turns golden and the chilies crisp up, take the ladle off the heat, pour it into the dal and cover.

Panchmel dal is ready to eat.

Serve hot along with rice or chapatis.

Meal below: panchmel dal, stuffed ridge gourd, mooli pickle, chapatis.

Notes:

Try other exotic dal recipes:

The post Panchmel Dal: Five Legume Medley appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

You Need:

[For 3-4 servings]

• Masoor dal (red lentil) – 1 small cup [buy here]
• Chana dal (Bengal gram) – 1 tablespoon [buy here]
• Onion – 1 small, finely chopped (~2 tablespoons)
• Ginger – 1/2 inch stick, finely chopped
• Green chilies – 1
• Salt – to taste
• Red chili powder – 1/4 teaspoon [buy here]
• Coriander powder – 1/4 teaspoon [buy here]
• Cumin powder – 1/4 teaspoon [buy here
• Turmeric powder – a large pinch [buy here]
• Vegetable or peanut oil – for deep frying

The links above are amazon.com affiliate links. The Steaming Pot will earn a small commission if you buy via the links, at no additional cost to you.

How To Make Red Lentil Fritters:

1. Soak the dals

Wash masoor dal and chana dal together in several changes of water till the water runs clear. Soak the dals in three cups of water for at least six hours, or overnight.

The dals absorb the water on soaking, swell and soften. Drain the water, wash again and get ready to grind.

2. Grind

Place the soaked dals in a food processor. Make sure that the water has been completely strained out.

Add chopped ginger and green chilies.

Grind to coarse paste.

Add salt to taste along with the dry spices: cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, turmeric powder.

Grind again.

Transfer the dal paste to a bowl. Knead in finely chopped onions.

Cover and refrigerate for an hour, before you plan to fry the fritters.

2. Fry

Pluck small bite-sized balls of the dal paste.

In a thick-bottomed kadhai or skillet, heat some oil for deep-frying.

When the oil is hot, set heat to low and gently place a few dal balls. Make sure the balls are not jostling for space.(Smile in anticipation as the oil bubbles and sizzles and turns aromatic :) )

When the bottoms have turned golden, turn the dal balls over and let the other side fry till golden too.

When done, take the fritters out of the kadhai carefully using a slotted spoon and place them on absorbent kitchen paper.

Repeat frying the dal balls in small batches till all are done.

During the process, pour in more oil when you need to, and turn up the heat briefly if the pan cools down.

Serve masoor dal pakodi hot with onion rings, chaat masala, lime wedges and chutney/sauce…

…or use them in aloo badi ki sabzi. [Recipe to follow later!]

Notes:

You can freeze these fritters for later use in curries, they stay good for several days when frozen.

Check out other similar Indian snack delicacies:

Try these masoor dal recipes from The Steaming Pot archives:

The post Masoor Dal Pakodi: Red Lentil Fritters appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

All you need is some pre-planning: put chana dal to soak overnight if you plan to make it the next morning.

You Need:

Stuffing ingredients:

• Chana dal – 1 cup [buy here]
• Ginger – 1-inch stick, finely chopped
• Garlic – 4 fat cloves, finely chopped
• Carom seeds (ajwain) – 1 teaspoon [buy here]
• Dry mango powder (amchoor) – 1/2 teaspoon [buy here]
• Green chilies – 2, finely chopped
• Salt – to taste

For the dough:

• Atta (whole wheat flour) – 1 cup
• Water – for kneading
• Salt – to taste

For cooking:

• Ghee – 1 teaspoon per paratha

How To Make Dal Paratha:

1. Boil the dal

Wash chana dal well and soak it overnight (or for ~6 hours) in three cups of water.

Drain and rinse well.

Place the soaked dal in a pressure cooker in two cups of water. Lock the lid and cook on high heat till one whistle. Switch off the heat and let the pressure reduce naturally till the lid comes off with ease.

The dal should be cooked enough to get mashed, but not so much to dissolve into water.

Strain to separate the water from the boiled dal. Don’t throw this water away – use it for kneading the dough in the next step or for thinning out curries/soup.

Let the boiled, strained chana dal rest in the strainer for 15-20mins as it cools down.

2. Prepare the stuffing

After the dal has cooled enough to handle, give it a final squeeze to push out any residual water. You can now mash/crumble the boiled dal to form the base of the stuffing.

To the mashed dal, add the seasonings: finely chopped ginger, garlic and green chilies, carom seeds, amchoor powder, salt to taste.

Mash together well. Chana dal stuffing is ready to be filled into the parathas. Set aside till you prepare the dough.

3. Prepare the dough

Sprinkle a pinch of salt over dry wheat flour (atta). Sift it together to mix. Knead the atta as you would for chapatis.

[Note: Steps 1,2 and 3 need not be sequential. You could prepare the dough while the dal boils, though in that case you wouldn’t be able to use the dal water for kneading the dough.]

4. Fill them up

Make equal-sized elliptical balls of the dough, about 3-cms in diameter. Flatten each dough ball between your palms, make a little crater using your hands and stuff a tablespoon of dal into it.

Pull up the ends of the dough gently and pinch the “mouth” close, taking care not to (i) tear holes into the dough (ii) stretch unevenly.

The dough ball must now look modak-shaped; press and mould to make it elliptical back again.

Repeat till you are through with all the dough.

5. Roll and cook

For each paratha:

Flatten a stuffed dough ball, smear it with dry atta to prevent sticking while rolling. Roll it out on a flat surface using a rolling pin. Use more dry atta to dust the surface in case the dough begins to stick after rolling half-way.

Note: In a contest between shape and form, form wins – if not in art then at least in paratha-making.

If a certain stroke of the rolling pin will distort your paratha’s disk-like shape but smoothen a doughy bulge, go for it.

If another stroke can salvage its amoeboid appearance but will break open the stretched skin and spill out the dal, resist it.

Of COURSE you must get both right eventually. Parathas perfectly rounded – no raw patches post-cooking, no gaping holes on the surface – is the Holy Grail. Till you haven’t attained that ideal, do as I say: let the shape stray if it comes at the cost of form.

Roll till the dough is stretched thin enough to reveal a translucent vision of dal underneath, and stop at that – about 5 inches in diameter.

Heat a wide, flat pan for cooking the paratha. Place the rolled out paratha on the pan, on medium-high heat. Cook it till the surface facing the heat has started to brown.

Flip the paratha over. You might have to keep adjusting the heat – if the pan gets smoky, set the heat to low.

On the toasted paratha surface now facing up, smear half a teaspoon of ghee.

When the surface heatwards is done, flip it over again and smear this side as well with half a teaspoon of ghee.

Cook both sides of the paratha till toasted to your liking.

Chana dal paratha is ready to serve. Repeat step 5 for all the parathas.

To Serve:

Serve chala dal parathas hot with accompaniments like raita, pickle, chutney.

Meal below: dal parathas with homemade dahi, red capsicum curry, aloo chutney.

Notes:

Check out other interesting recipes to try out with chana dal:

Want more stuffed parathas? Try:

The post Dal Paratha: Flatbread with Chana Dal Stuffing appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

This recipe is a meatless take on the dhansak template, with plenty of vegetables and a freshly prepared dhansak masala.

Before I made my own, I had only had dhansak in Parsi restaurants. The dish was consistently delicious (standouts: Soda Bottle Openerwala and the now-closed Daddy’s Deli Bangalore) – but no two offerings tasted alike. So in my first attempt at preparing dhansak, I searched earnestly for a solid recipe. Youtube videos, blogs, old books. The challenge compounded. I found as many variations as the number of recipes. There were pretty wide differences in

With a few trials and adaptations, based partially on what I usually have in stock (sorry, patthar ke phool), I have finally settled for the recipe as I lay out below.

Note: I am fairly flexible about the dals as well as the vegetables that go into dhansak – whatever is in season or in my pantry is fair game. The main consideration is that the quantity totals should tally. For example, if the only dal I have on hand is toor, I would put in enough of it so that the overall quantity of dals remains the same. If I skip the potato or eggplant, I would add more pumpkin or chayote. If going beyond the listed ingredients, I would pick substitutes from a similar flavor profile – for example, masoor would be swapped with yellow moong, not rajma; pumpkin with butternut squash, not capsicum.

Some of the links below are amazon.com affiliate links. The Steaming Pot will earn a small commission if you buy via the links, at no additional cost to you.

You Need:

[For 4-6 people]

To boil together:

• Toor dal – 3/4 cup [buy here]
• Masoor dal – 1/4 cup [buy here]
• Chana dal – 1/4 cup [buy here]
• Pumpkin – 2 cups, cubed
• Bottle gourd or chayote (chow chow) – 1/2 cup, cubed
• Eggplant – 1/2 cup, cubed
• Potato – 1/2 cup, cubed
• Tomatoes – 1 cup, cubed
• Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon [buy here]
• Bay leaves – 2

For the dry dhansak masala powder:

• Coriander seeds – 1 tablespoon
• Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon [buy here]
• Fenugreek seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Peppercorns – 8
• Dry red chilies – 1 or 2
• Cinnamon stick – 1-inch stick [buy here]
• Cloves – 2 [buy here]

For the tempering:

• Salt – to taste
• Tamarind – coin-sized ball
• Tomatoes – 1
• Onions – 2 medium
• Green chili – 1 (optional)
• Garlic – 8 small cloves / 3 big cloves
• Ginger – 1-inch stick
• Cinnamon stick – 1 small
• Ghee – 2 tablespoons

Garnishing:

Kasoori methi, coriander leaves

How To Make Vegetarian Dhansak:

1. Boil the dal and veggies

Wash the dals (toor + masoor + chana) together in several changes of water till the water runs clear. Soak the dals in three cups of water for 30 minutes.

While the dals soak, chop the veggies (pumpkin + eggplant + potatoes (peeled) + chow chow / bottle gourd + tomatoes) into bite-sized chunks.

Tip: Place the eggplant and potatoes in salted water till ready to use, to prevent discoloration.

Drain the soaking dals and place them in a pressure cooker, along with all the chopped vegetables. Pour in three cups of water. Add a teaspoon of turmeric powder and a couple of bay leaves.

Give it all a stir. Lock the lid of the pressure cooker and boil till the dals and vegetables have softened to mashable consistency. In an Indian-style cooker, this takes boiling on high heat till the first whistle, and then further simmering on low heat till the cooker lets out two more whistles.

Let the cooker stand till it has let out its steam naturally. Unlock the lid.

Blend the dals to the consistency you like: use a whisk for coarse texture, a blender for fine texture. Or, do what I do: blend a fourth of the boiled dal and veggies in a blender and mash the rest using the back of a ladle.

2. Make the dry dhansak powder

Dry roast these whole spices on low heat, one by one, in a thick-bottomed pan or tava: a tablespoon of coriander seeds, a teaspoon of cumin seeds, half a teaspoon each of fenugreek and mustard seeds, a few pepper corns, a dry red chili or two, a small cinnamon stick and two cloves.

Let the spices cool.

Dry grind them in a spice grinder.

Dhansak masala powder is ready. Keep aside till it’s time to use.

3. Make the tempering

Soak a coin-sized ball of tamarind in half a cup of hot water. After twenty minutes, mash the tamarind into the water, discard the roughage and seeds if any.

Grind together an inch stick of ginger, garlic cloves and half an onion.

Slice the remaining onion finely.

Heat two tablespoons of ghee in a thick-bottomed pan. When the ghee is hot, set the heat to medium and slide in the sliced onions along with a cinnamon stick.

Fry the onions for five minutes.

Then add to the pan the ginger-garlic-onion paste.

Stir continuously while the onion paste browns and becomes fragrant.

Add a tomato, either chopped or pureed, and a slit green chili if using.

Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring things around, or till the tomato turned a deeper hue.

Now is the time to put in our freshly made dhansak masala powder.

Give a final stir take the pan off the heat.

4. Put it all together

Mix together the boiled dal and vegetables (step 1) with the tempering (step 3).

Pour tamarind water into the dhansak.

Tip: If the tempering is stuck to the pan it was prepared in, use tamarind water to deglaze that pan first and then pour that into the dhansak.

Bring to a boil. Add water to thin it out if you like, and adjust salt.

Dhansak is ready.

Serve dhansak hot, garnished with fresh coriander leaves / kasoori methi.

Dhansak is typically paired with Parsi brown rice and kachumber salad.

Meal below (clockwise from left): berry pulao, aloo stir-fry, kachumber salad, dhansak, grape chutney.

Notes:

Like the idea of vegetables and dal boiled together? Then you will also enjoy poi saag toor dal, mooli sambar, pumpkin masoor dal with chili garlic relish.

The post Dhansak: Parsi Dal and Vegetable Medley appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

The recipe for this dal-based spice blend comes from a Tamil friend’s home kitchen. The masala tastes so richly flavorful, at first I had a hard time believing it is this simple. Try it!

You Need:

• Coriander seeds – 3/4 cup
• Urad dal – 3/4 cup
• Chana dal – 3/4 cup
• Dry red chilies – 10 (adjust to taste)
• Peanut oil – 2 teaspoons

In the pic above, clockwise from top-left: chana dal, dry red chilies, urad dal, coriander seeds (sabut dhaniya).

How To Make South-Style Sookhi Sabzi Masala:

Heat a teaspoon of peanut oil in a thick-bottomed pan. Roast dry red chilies in the pan on low heat, till smoky.

Take the chilies out of the pan and spread them on a plate to cool.

Next, add chana dal to the same pan. Stir around and roast till fragrant. Add a few drops of oil if it feels dry.

Remove the roasted chana dal from the pan. As with the red chilies, spread the dal out too, to cool.

Next, tip the urad dal into the pan, and roast similarly till slightly golden.

Take the roasted urad dal out of the pan. Let cool.

Finally, add coriander seeds to the pan. Roast till the seeds become aromatic and turn a deeper shade.

Let the roasted coriander also cool.

Note: Do all the roasting on low heat, stirring attentively. Remember – there is a fine line between aromatic/smoky and charred ;-)

When all the ingredients have reached room temperature, transfer them to a grinder. Grind to powder.

Sookhi sabzi masala is ready.

Store the spice blend in a dry, airtight container. This stays good for a few weeks if kept away from moisture.

How To Use Sookhi Sabzi Masala

Other than its obvious use as condiment for dry sautéed vegetables, you can do more with this spice blend. A few ideas below…

Meal with chapatis, chayote raita, sautéed plantain with sookhi sabzi masala.

Sprinkle it over hot rice garnished with ghee and freshly ground rock salt…

Create a variant of coriander chutney – mix a teaspoon of this spice blend into half a cup of the green chutney base.

Notes:

Chana and urad dal are well-known partners in South Indian style tadka. If you like that combo, then you would also enjoy bottle gourd chutney, lemon rice.

If you enjoy rice with podi, try peanut sesame rice too.

The post Sookhi Sabzi Masala, South-Style appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

This botle gourd chutney recipe mostly follows Sailu’s sorakaya pachadi recipe. What I do differently is add more coriander leaves and, occasionally, more peel left over from other bottle gourd recipes: saadi lauki sabzi or lauki aloo stew, for example. The chutney turns out a deeper hue than what’s pictured in the source.

The taste: delicious!

You Need:

• Bottle gourd – 200 grams (~2 cups when cut into 1-cm cubes)
• Coriander leaves – 100 grams (~1/2 packed cup when chopped)
• Tamarind – small blob, the size of a quarter kafir lime. Soak in a tablespoon of warm water for 20 minutes
• Salt – 1/3 teaspoon or to taste
• Jaggery – 1/3 teaspoon or to taste
• Garlic – 5 cloves
• Green chilies – 3
• Dry red chili – 1 or 2
• Urad dal – 1 teaspoon
• Chana dal – 1 tablespoon
• Coriander seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Oil – 3 teaspoons

For the tadka:

• Salt – a pinch
• Dry red chili – 1
• Urad dal – 1/4 teaspoon
• Curry leaves – 6
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Asafoetida powder – a pinch
• Oil – 1 teaspoon

How To Make Lauki Chutney / Bottle Gourd Chutney with Peel:

1. Fry the dals and whole spices

Heat two teaspoons of oil in a pan.

Add to the hot oil cumin seeds, coriander seeds, chana dal and urad dal (in that order).

Set heat to low and let the whole spices and dals fry till golden.

This would take around 3 minutes. Turn off the heat. Take out of the pan and let cool.

2. Saute the greens and chilies

Wash and chop coriander leaves.

Slit green chilies into two. Break dry red chili into 2-3 pieces.

To the same pan in which the dals were fried, add garlic cloves and dry red chili pieces. When the the chili sizzles, add it to green chilies and coriander leaves.

Sauté on medium heat for a minute, stirring regularly. The coriander leaves will give off water and turn a darker hue.

Take the sautéed greens and chilies out of the heat too, and let cool.

3. Cook the bottle gourd

Chop the bottle gourd into 1-cm cubes. If using extra bottle gourd peel, wash and chop them too into similar-sized strips.

To the same pan in which the greens were sautéed, add another teaspoon of oil and add the bottle gourd peel strips and chopped bottle gourd.

Cook on medium heat, stirring every other minute, till the bottle gourd has softened enough to eat. This would take around 10 minutes.

Let the pan cool a bit.

4. Put it all together

In a grinder, grind the ingredients in FIFO order.

5. Do the tadka

Heat a teaspoon of oil in a tadka ladle.

To the hot oil, add mustard seeds, asafoetida powder, dry red chili, curry leaves and urad dal. As soon as the dal turns golden, add a pinch of salt, swivel the ladle to mix and turn off the heat.

Pour the hot tadka over the bottle gourd chutney.

Serve lauki chutney / bottle gourd chutney with hot rice and ghee.

Notes:

Try other Andhra-style recipes: tomato peanut chutney, ridge gourd moong dal, palak toor dal.

The post Lauki Chutney: Bottle Gourd Chutney with Peel appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

Taste aside, this is a valuable recipe to have in your repertoire if you want to build divine connections or social relationships: kosambari is traditionally offered to gods on auspicious occasions and exchanged with neighbors as a token of goodwill.

You Need:

[Serves 2-3]

• Chana dal – 1/2 cup
• Carrot – 1
• Fresh coconut – enough to give 1/2 cup when grated
• Green chili – 1
• Coriander leaves – small bunch
• Juice of freshly squeezed lime – to taste
• Salt – to taste

For tempering (optional):

• Oil – 1 teaspoon
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Asafoetida powder – a pinch
• Curry leaves – 4-5

How To Make Chana Dal Kosambari:

Wash half a cup of chana dal in several changes of water till the water runs clear.

Place chana dal in a large bowl with three cups of water.

Soak for 4-5 hours.

Drain and rinse the soaked dal.

Scrape and grate the carrot.

Grate the coconut.

Chop coriander leaves and green chili finely.

In a salad mixing bowl, add soaked chana dal, chopped coriander leaves and green chili, grated coconut, grated carrot.

Mix well. Add salt and lime juice to taste.

Chana dal kosambari is ready. You can optionally add a tadka.

For the tadka: Heat a teaspoon of oil in a tadka ladle. When the oil is hot, add to it 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds. As soon as the seeds crackle, add a pinch of asafoetida powder, 4-5 curry leaves. Mix and switch off the heat.

Pour the tadka into the kosambari. Mix.

You can serve chana dal kosambari on its own as a salad…

…or as part of a larger meal. In the picture below: lauki paratha, pumpkin mangodi curry, chana dal kosambari.

Notes:

Also try these legume-based salads: green gram sundal, adzuki bean salad with greens, rajma chaat.

The post Chana Dal Kosambari appeared first on The Steaming Pot.