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?
*I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post*
Ingredients:
- 1 cup Masoor Daal (Goya Red Lentils)
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt, to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon Shan Turmeric Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Shan Red Chilli Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger paste
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic paste (or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder)
For Baghar/Tadka (infused oil topping):
- 1/8 small white onion, finely diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/8 teaspoon Badia Cumin Seeds
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 Whole Red Dried Chillies, chopped
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.
Masoor Daal Tadka
Ingredients
- 1 cup Masoor Daal (Goya Red Lentils)
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt, to taste
- ½ teaspoon Shan Turmeric Powder
- ½ teaspoon Shan Red Chilli Powder
- ½ teaspoon ginger paste
- ½ teaspoon garlic paste (or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder)
For Baghar/Tadka (infused oil topping):
- ⅛ small white onion, finely diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ⅛ teaspoon Badia Cumin Seeds
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 Whole Red Dried Chillies, chopped
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!
If you want to stay up-to-date on all Mostly Masala recipes then sign up for the newsletters below! Recipes will be sent straight to your inbox 📩
If you tried out a recipe and enjoyed feel free to leave a review and comment down below. I would love to hear what you thought ✨