There are few meatless dishes, which I like, and I try to make those dishes tastes good, so when I feel like eating right or when the craze of working out hits me, I can still have delicious food, and enjoy every bite of it, like Chana Dal!
Indian cuisine has a great variety of vegetarian, healthy, tasty, and low calorie dishes, and I turn to this cuisine when I think it’s time to eat right, and had enough feasting on desserts.
Chana Dal keeps me full for long time and is a great source of protein too.
The different types of dal I cooked in my life, always tastes even better the next day.
It is a time saver specially if you work long hours, or you don’t like to spend much time in the kitchen.

How do you like to have your dal, with bread, rice, or have it like a soup?
Chana Dal
Serving 3. 391 calories per serving.
1 cup uncooked chana dal
6 cups water
5 whole cloves garlic
2-inch ginger root, cut into quarters
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoon oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 tomato, finely chopped
Salt
1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 green chili, cut in half
1 cup hot water
– Wash lentils and soak in hot water for 45 minutes.
– To a pan, add water, lentils, garlic, and ginger. Let it boil until lentils are tender, may take 30 to 40 minutes.
– When the lentils are cooked, discard the ginger.
– In another pan, fry onion in oil and 1 Tablespoon butter until translucent.
– Add tomatoes to onion. Stir 3 minutes on medium high heat.
– Add garam masala, coriander, curry powder, cumin, and turmeric. Continue stirring.
– Add green chili. Stir for another 2 minutes.
– Pour lentils on top of onion and tomato mixture. Stir and mash the lentils with the back of the spoon. Add one cup of hot water.
– Let simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. The longer it simmers, the more flavor it develops, will take 3 minutes.
– Add 1 tablespoon butter just before serving. Serve hot with plain rice or bread.
13 Comments
Dedy@Dentist Chef
23/09/2014 at 9:53 amDamn delicious and comforting, i guess i can’t stop diggin it….
tons of crispy bacon topping made it lovely eve more!
Cheryl
23/09/2014 at 11:20 amYou read my mind – I was looking for an excellent dal recipe yesterday and this looks just perfect!
munatycooking
23/09/2014 at 1:11 pmIt’s very delicious and I hope you give it a try 🙂
Nagi
23/09/2014 at 4:50 pmDAAL is one of my FAVE Indian foods! I love it so much when I order it, I eat it with a spoon WITHOUT rice!! Aren’t I disgusting? I actually order it for lunch sometimes from a takeout place and I ask them to hold the rice!! YUM, I love that I can make this myself at home and I was surprised to see that they are all easily accessible ingredients! Yay! Pinning and saving! Don’t be surprised if you see my attempt on my blog soon (all credit to you!) 🙂
munatycooking
25/09/2014 at 11:55 amI love dal so much and enjoy it with bread and without 🙂 … I’d love to see my recipe on your blog, I’m excited already 🙂
Angie@Angie's Recipes
24/09/2014 at 3:59 amI enjoy a good lentil stew too. It looks very comforting and jampacked with flavours.
munatycooking
25/09/2014 at 11:57 amI’m sure you’ll like this recipe Angie 🙂
Helene D'Souza
24/09/2014 at 6:14 amYum my husband’s favorite. =)
munatycooking
25/09/2014 at 11:56 amMy husband loves it with Paratha, he can have dal all day long and won’t get enough 😉
Jeannie
24/09/2014 at 10:05 amHi Muna, I love dhal especially enjoyed it with flat breads like chapatti and thosai….yours would be so awesome on its own…so thick and creamy and homey!
munatycooking
25/09/2014 at 11:56 amThanks for the kind comment Jeannie, I hope that you try it and enjoy it too 🙂
Farah @ The Cooking Jar
25/09/2014 at 11:06 pmI love me some dal. I always eat my dal with roti, accompanied with fish curry and maybe some chutney. Also like a spicy sambal to go ontop of the dal. Just a dollop.
munatycooking
26/09/2014 at 4:25 amFarah, you just made me hungry 🙂