Dal fry is a delicious dish to prepare when a guest arrives for dinner. Of course, as Nepali, you prefer serving a typical Nepali dinner. And while preparing dinner, you will obviously not prepare simple dishes.
You will cook various items like chicken, paneer, tofu, and other dishes according to your guest’s preference.
But do you give a special touch to dal? Most of you may not give dal that much importance while serving to your guest. Serving dal fry over plain dal is much better. But you need to know the proper dal fry recipe.
Of course, when you search on the internet, you will find many recipes to prepare dal fry. But this recipe tastes delicious and is easy to prepare.
Dal Fry Recipe Trips
- Don’t rush to prepare dal fry. It requires a longer time and needs more water to cook.
- Use fresh Split Pigeon Pea to prepare dal fry. When you use fresh dal, you can prepare flavorful dal.
- You can use moong dal instead of Split pigeon pea.
- Soak the dal before cooking. Soaking dal cut the cooking time. You will have to soak dal for about an hour.
- If you are pressure-cooking dal, you don’t have to soak for an hour. You can just soak it for 15 to 20 minutes. However, if you are pressure-cooking it, you may skip soaking.
- Avoid using too many spices like garam masala, red chili powder, and turmeric. If you avoid spicy dal fry, you may increase spicy spices.
Ingredients To Prepare Dal Fry
- Split pigeon peas
- Ghee
- Onion
- Tomatoes
- Cumin Seeds
- Mustard seeds
- Crush ginger garlic
- Turmeric
- Hing
- Kasuri methi
- Garam masala
- Red chili powder
- Green chili
- Coriander leaves
- Salt
- Curry leaves
Instruction To Make Dal Fry
Do follow every step mentioned in this recipe to make flavorful dal fry. Skipping one can affect the taste of dal fry.
Step 1:
Rinse dal two to three times until the water runs clear. This recipe requires one cup of dal. Ensure you are using soak dal to cut off cook time.
Step 2:
Next, you will have to pressure cook the dal. To pressure cook the dal, you will need two and a half cups of water. Add one cup of dal with two and a half cups of water in a pressure cooker. Pressure cook the dal for two whistles on medium flame.
Step 3:
After two whistles, open the lid and check whether dal turns soft or not. If dal is not soft, you need to pressure cook it for few more times. If you have soaked the dal, you don’t have to pressure cook it more than two times.
Step 4:
After you have pressure cook the dal, you will need to prepare masala for dal fry. Heat the pan with one tablespoon of ghee.
Step 5:
After ghee gets hots, you will need to add half teaspoon mustard seeds, half teaspoon cumin seeds, 1 dried red chili, 1/8 teaspoon hing, and 1 curry leaves. In the low-medium flame, roast all the spices for a minute.
Step 6:
Now you need to add finely chopped onion. You need one medium-size onion to prepare dal fry. Add chopped onion to the pan, then roast it on medium flame. Saute until onions turn golden brown.
Step 7:
Next, you can add one to two medium green chilies and stir them for few seconds. You can increase or decrease the pieces of chili depending upon your taste.
Step 8:
After that, you need to add one teaspoon of ginger garlic paste. Stir until the raw smell of ginger-garlic goes away. You may have to stir it until a minute or more.
Step 9:
Add half a cup of chopped tomatoes. You will need one large tomato. Stir it until tomatoes turn soft. You can also add few pinches of salt in this step.
Step 10:
Next, you need to add spice powders. Add one-fourth teaspoon turmeric powder, half teaspoon red chili powder, and half teaspoon garam masala. Stir it until the smell goes. You need to cook it for two minutes on medium flame.
Step 11:
After masala is ready, you need to add cooked dal. Add dal and mix it well.
Step 12:
Stir it well and cook the dal. Taste the dal and adjust the spices if needed. Also, you can add more water to suit your taste. When the dal cools down, it will thicken a bit, so better to add water in this step.
Step 13:
When the dal begins to bubble, you need to add kasuri methi. When the dal fry reaches the desired consistency, you can add kasuri methi. Crush half teaspoon kasuri methi on your palm and add it to the dal. Stir it well.
Step 14:
Now you need to add coriander leaves. Chop the coriander leaves and add it to the dal. Stir it for few seconds and turn off the stove.
Step 15:
To enhance the flavor of dal, you can add lemon juice. Squeeze half lemon right before serving. However, this is an optional ingredient, so you may skip the lemon.