This restaurant style dal fry is our family’s favorite. Made with toor dal in an onion tomato masala, it tastes yum with both, rotis and rice.
It is truly a surprise to me that I am sharing this amazing dal fry recipe only now. For something that I quite often make and we all love, it should’ve been on the blog much earlier. Nevertheless, better late than never right? So here it finally is, this delicious lentil recipe that is especially my father’s favorite. There is this Punjabi restaurant near our house in Mumbai, that serves one of the best dal fries we’ve had. And it was keeping in mind that taste that I developed, tried and tested my recipe of it. Like most of my recipes, even this one is an easy under 30 minutes recipes. However, unlike my other lentil recipes, this dal fry recipe is slightly elaborate. That’s because, the pressure cooked dal is cooked further in a spiced onion and tomato masala to give it it’s signature “dal fry restaurant style” flavor.
Therefore, it is this masala that needs some TLC to bring out the mouthwatering taste of the dal fry, we love! Now, even though elaborate I promise it is absolutely a breeze to make. In fact, you can even boil the dal earlier and make the masala on the day when you’d like to make the dal fry. All that you will then need to do is combine the two, before serving. So you can bookmark this recipe for a special occasion or even to make on a weekend. Since this is a thick bodied lentil curry, made with toor dal, you can enjoy it both with Indian flatbreads and rice. We especially love having it with parathas and rotis. However this time, we paired it with kulchas that we got from our recent Indian grocery run. We also had some cucumber raita and my quick onion pickle, along side.
You may also like,
Moong dal with tempered garlic
Toor dal with tomatoes and ginger
Masoor dal masala – Brown lentil curry
Bhaja moong dal (Bengali roasted moong dal)
Three part cooking
The two parts of the dal fry recipe is cooking the dal and making the masala for for it. The third part of this deliciousness is the tadka or tempering. And this is my favorite bit. The tempering is made in ghee with cumin seeds, curry leaves and dried chilis. Oh the fragrance and taste the tadka lend to the dal, heavenly! Not only does it make the lentil curry more amazing, but is also makes it looks lovely. In fact, when serving for guests, I love serving the dal with the tadka laced on it, just like in the pictures. It makes it even more visually appealing.
When you are going to be making this lentil recipe, everyone around will know that there’s something special cooking. It is that fragrant a tadka. If you are planning to make this very popular Indian dal recipe, I’d love to hear from you. You could share your food pictures with me over on Instagram. You could also share your feedback in the comments section below. I hope you are going to love this dal and enjoy with your loved ones, just like we do. 🙂
Eat hearty!
Dal fry restaurant style
Equipment
- Pressure cooker
- Shallow cooking pot
Ingredients
- ½ cup toor dal
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 1 large tomato finely chopped
- 2 chilis slit
- 1½ tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 8-10 curry leaves
- 2-3 tbsp coriander leaves finely chopped
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- ½ tbsp coriander powder
- 1 tbsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp red chili powder for color
- 1 tsp hing asafetida
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2-3 dried red chilis
- 4-5 tbsp ghee
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Pressure cook the dal with turmeric powder and 1 cup water until fully cooked. When done, whisk it to make it smooth and break the lentils. Set aside
- Over medium heat, heat 3 tbsp ghee in a cooking pot and add the mustard seeds. Once they pop, add the hing and a few curry leaves. Fry for a minute and add the onions, cook until they turn translucent
- Add the ginger-garlic paste and cook until their raw smell goes off. Then add the tomatoes and salt, cook until the tomatoes turn mushy - add some hot water to cook the tomatoes down
- Throw in the garam masala, coriander powder, chilis - stir these in well and cook for 2-3 minutes. Now tip in the cooked dal, mix in well and add ¾ cup water*. Over medium low flame, let this simmer for 5-6 minutes
- Check for salt, adjust if needed and turn the heat off. In a separate small pan, heat the remaining ghee and add in the cumin seeds. Once it crackles, add the dried red chilis and remaining curry leaves, mix well. Quickly add the chilli powder and turn the heat off
- Lace the dal with the cumin seed-chilli powder tempering and garnish with coriander leaves. Stir the tempering in and serve your delicious dal fry restaurant style with choice of Indian breads and/or rice. Enjoy!
Notes
- Add as much or as little water as you'd like the consistency of your dal to be
- 1 cup = 250 millilitres
- tbsp = tablespoon
- tsp - teaspoon
I remembered Lamba looking at your dal really looks exactly that restaurant type.Tooo yummy it must have tasted .
Thanks maa! Thant is exactly what I had in mind while making mine, as well xx