This Gujarati dal is one of our family favorite recipes that I make multiple times a week. It’s healthy, it’s comforting and full of flavors that is so easy to make.
To make it a complete cozy meal consider serving with hot rice (or phulka roti) and side of sabzi, papad and mango pickle.
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❤️You’ll Love This Recipe
- It has a balance of all these flavors - spicy, sweet, tangy.
- It is protein-packed and healthy just like any other lentil dish. As being Gujju, I make it multiple times a week.
- You can make a big batch and store in the refrigerator or freeze for later.
- You have too much leftover and want to try something different. Make dal dhokli using leftover Gujarati dal. Most of the time, I make extra so the next day I can make dal dhokli.
🧾Ingredients
Here is the pic of ingredients required to make Gujarati dal. Plus, tempering (tadka) ingredients pic is shared later below. It looks too many, but trust me it is very simple and easy to make.
Ingredient Notes
Jaggery: I always use desi gur (the sticky kind). You can use grated jaggery block or powdered jaggery. In the absence of it, please use light brown sugar.
Lemon juice: It adds a nice tang to the dish. Traditionally Kokum is used for sourness and added while boiling the dal in the pressure cooker. But it is hard to get here in the USA. I always use lemon juice.
The gujarati dal you get in restaurants (in Gujarat) or in wedding functions, it has tamarind in it for sourness and kharek (dried date) for sweetness. Hence it tastes so different than our home-style version.
Green chili: My daughter eats this dal, so I don’t want her to bite into chilies, so I use slit chilies. So I can discard while serving. If you like the taste of chilies in your bite then you can add crushed or finely chopped one.
Now, this is the pic of Tadka ingredients. Looks many, but all of them are basic and easy to find in an Indian pantry.
🍳Step By Step Photo Instructions
1) Wash toor dal under running cold water till water runs clear. If you have time then soak in enough water for 15-20 minutes. Or you can skip the soaking step. It will be fine.
- Take dal with 1 cup of water in the pressure cooker. Now take a small piece of muslin cloth, put peanuts in it and tie it. Make a ‘potli’. Put into the pressure cooker. Alternately, go for easy method. Add peanuts into a steel katori or glass and put it into the cooker.
2) Cover the cooker with lid, put the weight on and cook on medium for 6-7 whistles. Let the pressure go down by itself and open the lid.
3) Remove the potli and keep boiled peanuts aside.
4) Now add 2 cups of water into the boiled dal and blend it using an immersion hand blender till smooth. Traditional the wooden whisk (valonu or madani) is used to churn the dal.
5) Turn the heat back on medium. Now add turmeric powder, red chili powder and salt.
6) Also, add ginger, green chili and tomatoes.
7) Add jaggery too. Mix well.
8) Let it simmer for a good 10 minutes. Do stir occasionally in between and if it becomes thick then add a splash of water and continue simmering. (the consistency of this gujarati dal should be medium-thin, not thick like punjabi dal fry)
9) While it’s simmering make tempering. Heat the oil in a small pan on medium heat. Once hot add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Then add cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds. Let them sizzle.
10) Now add bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves and dried red chili. Saute for 30-40 seconds or till you get a nice aroma of whole spices. Then add curry leaves and hing.
11) Immediately add the tempering to the simmering dal & stir.
12) Lastly add lemon juice, boiled peanuts and chopped cilantro. Mix and serve.
💭Expert Tips
- The consistency of the Gujarati dal: My grandmom says that when you keep the dal in a bowl for a few minutes. Water should float on top and dal should settle at the bottom. If this happens then it is the perfect consistency of the dal.
- Instead of boiling peanuts with dal, you can boil peanuts in the microwave for a couple of minutes.
- Always add lemon juice at the end (after simmering is done).
🍽 Serving Idea
Because of this thin consistency, have just a bowlful of dal-rice is not enough and filling. So it is usually served as a part of a meal (gujarati thali).
Homestyle everyday Gujarati thali contains, Gujarati dal (with a drizzle of ghee on top), rice, rotli, shaak (dry vegetable dish) and other sides are optional (e.g. chaas, papad, pickle).
FAQs
Instead of a pressure cooker, you can boil the toor dal in instant pot on manual (high pressure) for 7-8 minutes. But I have seen many add all the ingredients (except tempering) and cook. Generally, I do not make that way, because I like my dal smooth (that’s how I grew up eating). If you add all at once, you can’t use a hand blender to make it smooth after boiling (as tomatoes, peanuts, chilies will get ground up). If you do not care for smooth texture then go ahead and do that.
Simply skip the ginger in the recipe. Originally this is no onion no garlic dish so it is pretty straight forward to make it Jain.
Check Out Other Authentic Gujarati Recipes
PS Tried this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comment section. I always appreciate your feedback! Plus, Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook for all the latest updates.
📋 Recipe Card
Gujarati Dal {Authentic Recipe!}
Ingredients
- ½ cup Arhar dal (toor dal or split pigeon peas)
- 1 tablespoon Peanuts
- 1 + 2 cups Water
- ½ teaspoon Red chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- ¼ cup Tomato chopped
- 1 Green chili slit
- ½ teaspoon Ginger paste or freshly grated or crushed
- 1 tablespoon Jaggery (Gur)
- Salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Cilantro or coriander leaves chopped
For Tempering (Tadka)
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- ¼ teaspoon Mustard seeds
- ¼ teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 6-7 Fenugreek seeds (Methi dana)
- 1 Cloves
- ½ inch Cinnamon stick
- 1 Bay leaf
- 1 Dried red chilies (broken into two pieces, seeds & stem removed)
- 8-10 Curry leaves
- ⅛ teaspoon Hing (Asafoetida)
Instructions
Boiling Dal & Peanuts:
- Wash toor dal under running cold water till water runs clear. If you have time then soak in enough water for 15-20 minutes. Or you can skip the soaking step. It will be fine.
- Take dal with 1 cup of water in the pressure cooker. Now take a small piece of muslin cloth, put peanuts in it and tie it. Make a ‘potli’. Put into pressure cooker. Alternately, go for an easy method. Add peanuts into a steel katori or glass and put into the cooker.
- Cover the cooker with lid, put the weight on and cook on medium for 6-7 whistles. Let the pressure go down by itself and open the lid.
- Remove the potli and keep boiled peanuts aside.
Making Gujarati Dal Recipe:
- Now add 2 cups of water into the boiled dal and blend it using an immersion hand blender till smooth. Traditional the wooden whisk (valonu or madani) is used to churn the dal.
- Turn the heat back on medium. Now add turmeric powder, red chili powder, salt, ginger, green chili, tomatoes and jaggery. Mix well.
- Let it simmer for a good 10 minutes. Do stir occasionally in between and if it becomes thick then add a plash of water and continue simmering. (the consistency should be medium-thin, not thick like punjabi dal fry)
- While it’s simmering make tempering. Heat the oil in a small pan on medium heat. Once hot add mustard seeds and let them splutter.
- Then add cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds. Let them sizzle.
- Now add bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves and dried red chili. Saute for 30-40 seconds or till you get a nice aroma of whole spices.
- Then add curry leaves and hing.
- Immediately add the tempering to the simmering dal & stir.
- Lastly add lemon juice, boiled peanuts and chopped cilantro. Mix and serve.
Notes
- The consistency of the Gujarati dal: My grandmom says that when you keep the dal in a bowl for a few minutes. Water should float on top and dal should settle at the bottom. If this happens then it is the perfect consistency of the dal.
- Instead of boiling peanuts with dal, you can boil in the microwave for a couple of minutes.
- Always add lemon juice at the end (after simmering is done).
- To make it Jain, please skip ginger.
- Instead of jaggery, you can use light brown sugar
Renu Nair
Yummy always tried making It but never got this taste. Thanks a lot for sharing the recipe.
Kanan Patel
Very glad that you liked the flavors.