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Dal tadka
Also known as दाल तड़का · daal tadka · tadka dal · yellow dal tadka
Yellow lentils cooked soft, finished at the table with a sizzling pour of ghee, cumin and dried chilli. The crackle is the seasoning.
Typical serving
380 kcal
usually 300–480 kcal
 Protein | 14 g |
|---|---|
 Carbs | 50 g |
 Fat | 14 g |
Reference figures for a dish as it is commonly cooked — never a measurement of your plate. The range is the honest part: two kitchens make this differently. In the app, a photograph replaces the guess.
Ingredients
Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard
- 90gtoor dal — half masoor makes it quicker and a shade sweeter
- 90gbasmati rice
- 1 tbspghee
- 1onion
- 1tomato
- 4garlic cloves
- 1 tspcumin seeds and turmeric
- 2dried red chillies
- 1 pinchasafoetida
- ½lemon
- 1 handfulcoriander
Method
6 steps
boil · 5mDal rinsed until the water runs clear, then on with the turmeric and three times its depth of water.
simmer · 30m walk awayUncovered until it collapses completely and thickens by itself, with the grey froth skimmed off in the first few minutes.
- boil · 12m walk away
Rice at the same time: rinsed, twice its volume of water, lid, lowest heat.
fold · 8mOnion and tomato softened in a spoon of the ghee and stirred in, then the dal beaten with a whisk and loosened with hot water to the thickness of pouring cream.
fry · 5mThe tadka, and it takes ninety seconds from cold: cumin into hot ghee until it crackles, garlic until it is gold AND NO FURTHER, chillies for a few seconds, asafoetida last with the pan already off the heat. A second past gold the garlic turns bitter and the whole bowl carries it.
finish · 3mPoured over the bowl so it hisses, then salt, lemon and coriander. Not stirred in until it is on the table — the crackle is meant to be heard.
Worth knowing
The tadka — spices bloomed in hot fat and poured over at the end — is the defining technique of dal, and it happens in seconds.
Blooming spices in fat is not theatre alone: several of their aroma compounds are fat-soluble and only release there.
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