Dal Fry Recipe {Restaurant style}

The BEST dal fry recipe! This homemade restaurant style dal fry is one of my most frequently made recipes! It’s perfect served with jeera rice or plain basmati rice.

This super satisfying and delicious dal is made with toor dal (split pigeon peas) and it is cooked with Punjabi onion tomato masala and spices.

Whenever we go to the North Indian restaurants we end up our dinner with dal fry - jeera rice or dal tadka - jeera rice. Dal fry and dal tadka are the two popular dal dishes that served in Punjabi restaurants. We order dal makhani very rarely because hubby likes this homemade one.

Dear husband never gets satisfied by the taste of dal fry in Indian restaurants in the USA except for a few restaurants. Most of the restaurants here have “Americanized” taste in Indian food. It usually has mild flavors which we do not like at all. We like spicy (not that spicy but definitely not mild) and rich food when it comes to restaurant food.

After disappointment in many restaurants’ food taste, I usually try to make popular restaurant recipes at home. For that, I have referred many cookbooks and come up with this recipe. It is exact restaurant style dal fry that we get in India.

Even though I made it restaurant style, I have not used whole lot of oil like outside food. So it is healthy and you can make it on an everyday basis too.

This dal fry is very easy and simple to make. If you follow the recipe and use the proportion of ingredients exactly as mentioned, I bet it will taste exactly the same as restaurant one.

Which dal is used for dal fry?

Toor dal or arhar dal is used to make this dal fry. But you can also make using other dal e.g. Moong dal, chana dal or you can make using mix of dal like this home style dal fry recipe.

How is restaurant style dal fry made?

For making this Punjabi dal fry, onion-tomato is cooked with some spices. Then boiled toor dal is added. Then it is simmered for a few minutes so all the flavors will get mingle. Finally, drizzle some lemon juice and sprinkle coriander leaves. Dal fry is ready to serve.

How to make dal fry? (Step by step Photos)

1) Wash arhar dal under running cold water till water runs clear.

2) Take washed dal and 1 cup of water in a pressure cooker. Cover with the lid, put the weight on. Let it cook on medium heat for 5-6 whistles or till dal becomes soft. Let the pressure go down by itself then open the lid. Keep it aside.

3) Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add cumin seeds. Let them sizzle a bit.

4) Then add chopped onions. Cook till onions are soft and light pink in color.

5) Then add ginger paste, garlic paste, and chopped green chili.

6) Saute for a minute or till the raw smell of ginger garlic goes away.

7) Then add chopped tomatoes and mix.

8) Cook till tomatoes are soft.

9) Then add red chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, and kasoori methi.

10) Mix well and cook for a minute.

11) Then add cooked dal and 1 cup of water.

12) Mix well and bring it to a boil. Then let it simmer for 5 minutes.

13) Then turn off the stove. Add chopped cilantro. Also, squeeze some lemon juice.

14) Mix well. Remove it to a serving bowl.

If not serving right away then keep it covered. So it stays warm till the time of serving. Make this dal fry in your kitchen and let me know how you like it.

UPDATE: Recently I tried to do the dhungar at the end similar to my dal makhani recipe. The taste was beyond my expectation. Just wow!! Do give it a try, I am sure you will like this smokey flavor in this dal fry recipe.

What to serve with dal fry?

• Serve with any mild rice dish. E.g. plain basmati rice, jeera rice, mushroom pulao, peas pulao, corn pulao, capsicum pulao, veg pulao (mild version).
• You can serve this dal fry with roti or paratha as well.