How to make Dal Tadka (Dal Fry)
Dal tadka or dal tarka is one of the easiest and most popular dal recipes in India. It’s usually made with masoor or toor dal and mashed up with rice to make an easy and tasty meal that’s rich in protein and carbs. While every household makes dal tadka differently, the basic ingredients remain the same – dal cooked and mashed, spices added, and tempered. The tempering is the most important part and even lends name to the dish – tadka means tempering in Hindi.
While this is not a very popular style of making dal in Kerala, I figured this is useful for those who are away from home and looking for a simple dal recipe to satisfy their cravings and comfort their homesickness.
I had used the pictures of this recipe for one of my photography series posts – angles in food photography. Like I mentioned in that post, sometimes the simplest of dishes can make a great meal, like we enjoyed that weekend. I just wanted to jot down the recipe here for those of you looking for a comforting bowl of yellow dal for your dal chawal.
You may also want to check out other popular dal recipes like jeera dal, dal panchratan, and dal makhani. Browse all dal recipes here.
Yellow Dal / Dal Tadka / Dal Fry / How to Make Dal
Ingredients for Dal Tadka:Toor dal – 1 cup(you can also use masoor dal / red lentils)Tomato – 1, cubedTurmeric powder – a pinchAsafoetida / hing – a pinchAmchoor / dry mango powder – 1/2 tsp(if you want it tangy)Sugar – a pinch (optional)Salt – to tasteFor Tempering:Onion – 1/4 cup, chopped fineGarlic – 3 pods crushed (optional)Jeera / cumin seeds – 1 tspDry red chillies – 3 to 4, halvedMustard seeds – 1/4 tspOil – 2 tspFor Garnishing:Chopped fresh coriander leaves (optional)How to make Dal Tadka:1. Pressure cook the dal, tomatoes and turmeric powder with 3 cups water. I cook it usually for 4 whistles since it takes longer to cook dal in Singapore. 3 whistles should usually be enough. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, cook in a closed, thick-bottomed pan for about 20-30 mins until the dal is cooked soft.2. Heat oil in a pan and add the ingredients for tempering. Once the mustard seeds start to pop and the onions turn transparent, add the cooked dal.3. Next, add salt, hing, sugar and amchoor and mix well. If the dal is too thick, add some water. If too watery, let it remain on fire for longer until the desired consistency is reached.4. Garnish wtih coriander leaves and serve with steamed white rice, papad and pickles. YUM!
NOTE:
You will see that a lot of ingredients I add are optional. This is because the basic yellow dal recipe is plain and simple with minimum flavours. Customize according to your taste and use just the bare minimum ingredients. It tastes great any which way. Serve hot with rice and and a dollop of ghee.
Dal turned out to be super tasty….thank you! 🙂
Thanks for the recipe, I am out of home and this was a life saver for me today.
Hi!
Thanks for the recipe. I just started cooking on my own and my previous two attempts at making daal were not that great… At least on the taste front.
So before the third attempt I thought of Googling it out and found your blog among others. Yours was to the point and well done. (I read your "about" page as well.)
I did tweak the recipe as there were no tomatoes at home. (Nor were many other items on the ingredients list–or if they are here I have no idea about them!) So taking a cue from the mango-powder hint (tangy) an remembering what my Mom said, I just put in two small "pachha maanga" (unripe mango) instead. I did not add onions on the previous two occasions, but did this time. And lo, it tasted more like daal! (May not be very good to others, but for me it was a step forward. 🙂
So thanks n God bless…
sounds great! proud of you for persevering through the dal making ordeal 🙂
Nice recipe but you should also mention the number of servings in your article .Please reply to this one too
Sorry about that! This dal tadka recipe will serve 4-6 people.
Hi Nags,
nice and simple recipe, was down with a cold and cough, and this felt really good,
cheers,
Karthik
Anon – that's so cool!! Do let me know if you try it and how it turned out for you 🙂
Hi Nags,
Thanks a lot for posting it.
I hadn't really tried a dal recipe since i'm from south india.
This one turned out really very yum 🙂
Mom's tip:
you can add a drop of oil or ghee while pressure cooking the dal. This will make the dal cook faster!! 🙂
Thanks so much for that lovely and handy tip for the yellow dal tadka Chaitra 🙂
Hi Nags,
Thanks a lot for posting it.
I hadn't really tried a dal recipe since i'm from south india.
This one turned out really very yum 🙂
Mom's tip:
you can add a drop of oil or ghee while pressure cooking the dal. This will make the dal cook faster!! 🙂
Anon – that's so cool!! Do let me know if you try it and how it turned out for you 🙂