Cuisine: Uttar Pradesh
Category: Lunch
Prep: 5 min
Cook: 20 min
Serves: 4
Difficulty: Easy
🌿 Vegetarian
Toor dal cooked with tomatoes into a thin, sour, everyday dal — the simplest and most frequently cooked dal of Varanasi households.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup toor dal
- 3 cups water
- 3 medium tomatoes — finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- For tempering:
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 4 garlic cloves — thinly sliced
- 1/4 tsp asafoetida
- 1 dried red chilli
- 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
- Salt
- Fresh coriander and lemon
Method
- Pressure cook toor dal with 3 cups water, finely chopped tomatoes and turmeric for 4 to 5 whistles until completely soft. Whisk lightly.
- The tomatoes cook into the dal, providing a natural sourness that makes the Banarasi dal tarter than plain toor dal. Season with salt.
- For tempering: heat 2 tbsp ghee in a small pan.
- Add cumin — sizzle. Add thinly sliced garlic — fry 1 to 2 minutes until golden.
- Add asafoetida and dried red chilli.
- Turn off heat. Add red chilli powder.
- Pour the entire ghee tempering over the dal. Stir.
- Garnish with fresh coriander. Serve with a squeeze of lemon and rice or chapati.