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Moong Masoor Daal

By Eram ButtOrigin: Pakistan
🎙️ Listen to the related episode
Red LentilsMoongLightVegetarian
Moong Masoor Daal

Flavour Notes

The mix of Moong and masoor lentils with roasted garlic offers a light summer daal.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of split, washed mung daal
  • 1 cup of masoor/split red lentils
  • 1/4-1/2 tsp of turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp of red chili powder (or more if you like it spicy)
  • 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 1/2 tsp of ginger paste
  • 1/2 tsp of garlic paste
  • 2 long green chilis, cut into thick slices
  • 1 small bunch of cilantro, leaves and middle stems, cut/chopped

Tarka / Vagar / Tempering

  • 2-3 Tbsp of ghee/butter/oil
  • 4-5 medium to large cloves of garlic, cut into half or quarter chunks
  • 2 heaping tsp of cumin seed

Method

  1. wash the 2 cups of lentils in water a few times to clear it of debris. You don't need the water to run fully clear.
  2. drain washing water and then refill the pot so that water is 2 inches above the lentils
  3. set to boil on a medium/high heat.
  4. While it is cooking, skim most of the foam off the top a few times to reduce it.
  5. Continue to boil the lentils until both moong and masur are soft.
  6. Add turmeric, red chili powder, ground cumin, salt, ginger paste, garlic paste and stir well.
  7. Add sliced green chilis and cilantro to taste (a lot of if you like it) and continue to simmer the daal.
  8. While daal is simmering, make the tarka
  9. Take your mix of ghee or butter and oil and heat on medium heat. If using butter, make sure to add some oil so the butter doesn't overly brown.
  10. wash a head of garlic and then cut the whole head across its width so that each clove of garlic is cut in half.
  11. Smash the garlic with a knife and the garlic will come out easily.
  12. If garlic are large cloves then cut them into quarters. Add garlic to heated ghee/butter/oil and slowly simmer and cook the garlic so that it infuses the fat.
  13. When garlic is golden but not brown (this will take several minutes), add cumin seeds and let them cook until they slightly brown. This will happen quickly.
  14. Pour tarka into simmering daal and stir.
  15. Turn off heat of daal, cover the pot and set aside for at least 10 min so that daal can be infused with flavour of the tarka.

Notes

Add more cilantro on top when serving. Serve with rice, roti, naan or eat on its own.