Dal Fry (Spiced Lentils)

A simple dal fry with Indian bread or rice and a curry of your choice is the ultimate comfort food and an easy, no-fuss meal. Pigeon pea lentils or toor dal is first tempered with onions, tomatoes and spices in the instant pot, then pressure-cooked to perfection.

Course Brunch

Cuisine Indian

Keyword dal fry, Indian lentil soup, instant pot lentils, toor dal

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Total Time 30

Servings

Calories 88.3kcal

Author Saima Zaidi

Equipment

6-quart Instant Pot Duo

Ingredients

1 cup pigeon pea lentils toor dal
2 teaspoon ghee or cooking oil
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 small onion
1 small tomato
½ inch piece ginger
4 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon red chilli powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
½ teaspoon coriander powder
salt to taste
2 sprigs fresh herbs - cilantro or parsley for garnishing
1-2 green chillies for garnishing

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preparation

Wash and soak the dal in 2 cups water.
Mince the ginger and garlic.
Dice the onion.
Chop the tomato.

Cooking

Turn on the instant pot and press the saute button. Wait for the display to show HOT. Add the ghee and cumin seeds.
After a few seconds, add the diced onion. Fry for 2 minutes or until the onions soften.
Add the ginger, garlic, tomato, powdered spices (red chilli, turmeric and coriander) and salt. Roast this masala for 2 minutes, adding splashes of water to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Cancel the sauté mode.
Add the lentils along with the water in which they were soaked. Close the lid, make sure the steam valve is set to sealing, press the pressure cooking button (high) and set the timer to 12 minutes. When the timer beeps, wait for 10 minutes, then release the rest of the steam by turning the steam valve to venting. Open the lid.
If the lentils are too thick, add ¼ cup water and mash with the back of a spoon. Press the sauté button again and simmer for 5 minutes so that the lentils get incorporated into the liquid.
Take the dal out in a bowl and garnish with parsley or cilantro. Serve hot with naan or white rice.

Notes

If you want a vegan dal fry, use a neutral cooking oil of your choice instead of ghee.
For a non-spicy dal, substitute the red chilli powder with paprika.
If you don't have pigeon pea lentils, make this dal with red lentils. In this case, wash the lentils but don't soak them, reduce the pressure cooking time to 4 minutes, and release pressure after 5 minutes.
Look at the body of the post to cook the dal and rice together in the instant pot.

Nutrition