Mom's Simple Moong Dal is spiced only with green chilies and garlic and makes for a light weeknight soup. Vegan Dal Dahl Daal Recipe with yellow Lentils. Serves 2 to 3

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 60 minutes
  • Cook time: 30 minutes
  • Total time: 90 minutes
  • Yield: 2
  • Category: Soup
  • Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

  • 1 cup dry Moong dal, (Mung Dal / petite yellow lentils (split and skinned mung bean))
  • 3 cups water (3.5 cups for thinner consistency)
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste

Tadka

  • 2-3 teaspoons oil
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
  • 1 green chili (finely chopped)
  • 1/8 tsp asafetida (hing (optional))

Method

  1. Wash and soak the Mung Dal for an hour.
  2. In a deep pan, add the drained dal and 3 cups water, salt and turmeric. Cover and cook on low-medium heat until dal mashes easily. 20-25 minutes.
  3. Or pressure cook on medium for 1 whistle (6 minutes at high pressure). Let the pressure release on its own. The dal in the pictures is pressure cooked hence well mashed.
  4. Once the beans are cooked, In a small pan, add the oil and heat on medium-high heat.
  5. Add mustard seeds and let them start to sputter. Reduce heat to low medium.
  6. Add the garlic, chili and asafetida-hing. (If you have an electric stove the temperature won’t immediately come down, and garlic can burn, so wait for a minute or take pan off the stove to reduce the heat of the pan, then add garlic and chili)
  7. Cook until the garlic and chili have brown edges.
  8. Drop this tadka into the cooked dal, mix just lightly so a good portion of the tempering stays on top of the dal. and serve hot.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.