This recipe is missing quite a few stars of the show in my opinion. No Garlic! No Garam Masala spices mixture! Not nearly enough turmeric! Dried onion instead of fresh?! And no cilantro?! This needs at least 1 teaspoon of Garam Masala. An additional 3/4 teaspoon of turmeric... 4 gloves of minced garlic, an inch and a half of minced fresh ginger root, a 1/2-3/4 cup cilantro, and a whole fresh onion. I also usually shred some carrot to add to it when cooking the lentils. And I add a diced medium tomato at the end. I saute 1 diced onion in about 1/4 cup oil until its softened... then add the minced garlic, ginger, and spices and cook for 4-5 minutes, ensuring not to burn the spices and garlic. Then I add the diced tomato and cilantro to the onions and cook til the tomatoes get nice and soft, stir that mixture into the lentils... simmer it all together for about 5-10 minutes and serve it over steamed basmati rice. I've been doing it like this for ages and its incredible. For those that dislike cilantro, just omit it or use much less.
I tempered the dal the traditional way by heating the oil in a little pan and then added fresh chopped onion (about 1/2 cup), cumin and a half teaspoon of minced garlic. Cook till onions are a light golden brown. Add the cumin and garlic in the last 45 seconds before pouring oil mixture into the daal. Also using ghee (clarified butter) or regular butter gives it a richer and more authentic flavor. Cook the combined mixture for about 2 minutes on low heat. Yummy.
Good dal recipe; however, if you soak the dal for an hour before cooking (preferably overnight, but an hour will do) the dal will get softer much quicker. also, fresh dhaniya leaves (=coriander, cilantro) added at the very end, after the dal is cooked, will add so much to flavour. just a handful of dhaniya will do. :)
This is so easy and tasty! I make this all the time and my husband loves it. It's a bit spicy for those who don't like spice so I cut back a little on the cayenne and add lemon juice before serving. I also don't have cumin seeds so I use ground cumin and it comes out perfectly. A little cilantro is an excellent addition if you have it.
This is a good backbone for a recipe but it needs literally quadruple the amount of seasonings. revisions as follows: 1 cup lentils 2 inch piece of ginger peeled and minced 2 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp salt (you may need more) 1 tsp cayenne pepper 1/4 cup oil or butter 1 fresh onion chopped fine 1 tablespoon cumin seeds PLUS 2 tsp garam masala powder 2 tomatoes chopped 1 bunch cilantro chopped 4 cloves garlic minced I promise you it will not be over-seasoned as this is pretty much impossible. The ingredients are right in the recipe though a few essentials are missing but I do not see how this could be flavorful with the amount of spices in the original recipe.
I don't know a huge amount about this style of cooking...but the idea of a pile of seasoned lentils seemed unappealing to me. I added a can of diced tomatoes to make a nice sauce and that made it yummy. I'm not certain if that is a 'wrong' choice for this style of food (like puting kethcup on sushi) but the diced tomatoes certainly made my family eat this up. We are vegetarian so I am always happy to find a tasty simple recipe. I sauteed real onion and just used a premixed blend of 'Indian Masala' (Club House brand). A nice healthy meal especially with warm Naan and rice. I would give my version (added diced tomatoes and real onion) five stars.
I loved this recipe! I was looking for a simple lentil recipe to get me through until my next paycheck and I spied this one. I had all of the ingredients on hand except ginger which I left out. I also added a dash of garam marsala and fenugreek. I will DEFINATELY be making this again!
I added 1/4-1/2 tsp. of garamasala (got this spice at Whole Foods) to mine. Plus a friend from Malaysia always made hers w/ chopped tomatoes so I added 1/2 of a chopped tomato to mine. Also I only added 1/4 tsp. of cayenne because I was going to feed my 9 mo. old this for her dinner. It was still too hot for her. It was perfect for us.
I didn't care for this much at all. I'm pretty sure it was my fault. I don't think I cooked the lentils long enough. Even though they were soft and soupy like the instructions indicate they still had a "raw" taste that really messed with the flavor. Probably won't attempt this again since I'm not a big lentil fan but I'm glad I gave it a shot.
