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Pakistani Masoor Daal Tadka (Spiced Red Lentils)

Daal (Pakistani Lentil) is an absolute staple in every Pakistani household. It’s simple, hearty, delicious, and so versatile! You can pair it with rice or roti and eat it for any meal. There is a huge variety of daals but today I’m going to be focusing on Masoor Daal (Red Lentils). These soft, tender red lentils are simple, spiced, and topped with a fried onion, chili, and cumin infused oil (baghar). Now, let’s get started with the recipe, shall we?

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Ingredients:

For Baghar/Tadka (infused oil topping):

Directions:

Daal is honestly so easy to make, it’s no wonder it’s a staple in just about every Pakistani household. To start off you’re going to need to rinse your dried lentils. This just helps get rid of any dust particles that may be in your dried lentils. Rinse one or two times until the water is less cloudy.

Once the lentils have been rinsed add in the water, spices, ginger, garlic, and salt. Stir everything in and then bring the mixture to a boil (should take about 2-3 minutes) on high heat. Once it’s boiling, reduce the heat to low allowing daal to simmer. Cover the daal and let it cook for 10 minutes or until lentils are soft and tender.

Check on your daal after the 10 minutes and it should be done or close to done. The lentils will be soft and they will have absorbed most of the water. If you’re lentils aren’t cooked, yet, cover and continue cooking for a few more minutes. Once it is done cooking you can taste to see if you need to adjust salt. Lastly, depending on how you are serving you may add a quarter cup extra water to thin it out. If you are eating with rice I would recommend doing this, but if you are eating with roti or naan keeping it thicker is best. But, of course, do what you like!

Now it’s time to level up this regular daal. Sometimes you just want to feel like you are eating restaurant quality daal and there ain’t nothing wrong with that! In a frying pan on medium heat add in the vegetable oil along with all the baghar/tadka ingredients. Let everything fry until the onions are golden brown, this should take about 3-4 minutes. Once everything is golden brown take it off the heat and remove it from the pan into a heat-safe container so it stops cooking.

When you are ready to serve, spoon the baghar straight on top of the daal. You can, optionally, garnish some curry leaves. This Masoor Daal tastes great on top of plain basmati rice or with some fresh roti.

Print

Masoor Daal Tadka

Hearty, spicy, delicious Pakistani red lentils topped with a fried onion, chili, and cumin infused oil!
Course Lunch, Main Course
Cuisine Indian, Pakistani
Keyword daal, masoor daal
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 6
Author Sana Gilani

Ingredients

For Baghar/Tadka (infused oil topping):

Instructions

  • In a medium sized pot add in dried lentils. Rinse one or two times to clean lentils and remove any dust particles.
  • Once rinsed add in water, spices, salt, ginger, and garlic paste. Bring to a boil on high heat then reduce heat to low and cover and cook. Cook on a low simmer for 10 minutes or until lentils are soft and tender.
  • When lentils are cooked taste to adjust salt if needed. Add in ¼ cup water if you want to thin out the daal, if you want to eat on rice. Otherwise, you may keep the current thickness if that is what you prefer.
  • To make baghar/Tadka in a frying pan add in vegetable oil along with all baghar ingredients. Fry everything on medium heat until onions are golden brown, about 3-4 minutes.
  • Once golden brown, remove baghar from frying pan into heat safe container.
  • When you are ready to serve, spoon baghar/Tadka on top of daal. Serve with basmati rice or fresh roti.
  • Enjoy!

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