Dal tadka

Ingredients

• Toor dal — rinsed200 g
• Turmeric½ tsp
• Ghee3 tbsp
• Cumin seeds1 tsp
• Mustard seeds½ tsp
• Garlic — thinly sliced4 clove
• Onion1
• Tomato2
• Dried red chillies2
• Asafoetida1 pinch
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Cover the lentils with three cups of water, add the turmeric and simmer covered for thirty minutes, until the grains collapse into a soft mass.

   30 min

2. 2

   Mash some of the lentils against the side of the pot and season. The consistency should be that of a thick soup.

   3 min

3. 3

   Separately fry the onion until golden, add the tomatoes and cook until they break down into a sauce. Stir that into the lentils.

   10 min

4. 4

   Heat the ghee in a small pan until it is just short of smoking. Add the mustard seeds; they should crackle within seconds.

   2 min

5. 5

   Add the cumin at once, the garlic and chillies ten seconds later, the asafoetida twenty seconds after that. The whole thing takes under a minute and cannot be left alone.

   1 min

6. 6

   Pour the sizzling tadka straight into the lentils — it should hiss. Stir once and serve with rice or flatbread.

   1 min

About the dish

The tadka is not a garnish, it is how the flavour is extracted. Spices in hot fat release fat-soluble aromatics in seconds that water never gets at: the same cumin and chilli tipped into the pot dry give you half as much.

The timing is measured in seconds. Cumin darkens in fifteen, garlic in thirty, and asafoetida starts to burn almost at once. Everything is chopped and within reach before the fat goes on the heat.

Worth knowing

• — If the cumin goes black, throw the tadka away and start it again: burnt spices bring a bitterness nothing removes.
• — Toor dal can be swapped for red masoor, which collapses twice as fast, in about fifteen minutes.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

340 kcal

Protein

16 g

Fat

12 g

Carbs

42 g

Useful for this recipe

• Grain to Water Calculator
• Cooking time calculator: how long to cook in the oven
• Calories and macros calculator for meals and recipes