Chana Dal Masala

Make it for lunch or dinner; it would surely grab the attention of everyone at home or party. It goes well with chapati/roti or paratha.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chana dal
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
• 2 bay leaves
• 5-6 cloves
• 3-4 green cardamoms
• 2 dry red chilies ( broken into small pieces)
• ¼ tsp asafetida
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 8-10 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 1"piece of ginger julienned
• 1 medium tomato chopped fine
• 2-3 green chilies chopped
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 2 tsp chat masala or amchur powder
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Chopped coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

• To the washed dal, add 3 cups of water, cooking oil, turmeric powder, salt to taste and cook in a pressure cooker or a deep pan. Boil till the lentils are soft but not mushy. Take out in a dish. Mix chat masala and lemon juice.
• Meanwhile prepare seasoning. In a small pan, heat the ghee, add bay leaves, cloves, green cardamoms, cumin seeds. When cumin stop sizzling add the garlic and dry red chilies and fry till the garlic is light brown. Add red chili powder, chopped tomato, chopped green chilies and ginger juliennes; and cook till tomato is soft and mushy. Now add the asafetida and turn off the fire.
• Add this ghee and spice mixture to the boiled dal. Do not stir. Cover the dish and keep it in an oven at 200 degree for about 30 minutes so that the flavors from spices are infused into the dal.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Do you know?

The seasoning is what makes the dal come alive. Dal is fat free and nature has designed it to absorb various combinations of seasonings and spices.

The standard ingredients of seasoning are mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafetida, red chilies or chili powder, onions, green chilies, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, curry leaves.

The fat of choice is ghee in the dal.

Dals are commonly garnished with fresh chopped coriander and served hot.