I was born and brought up in Gujarat, where daal and rice is a must along with at least one meal a day. Gujarati Daal has a balance of sweet and sour flavors, is easy to digest, nutritious and tastes delicious! I thought I’d share this with you to enjoy as well.

This recipe requires a lot of ingredients (to bring about many flavors), but is quite simple to make. I’m changing the format of the recipe a little bit to make it simpler to follow the steps. Instead of the standard: Ingredients list, then preparation methods, I’m making this recipe a two step process, with the ingredients and preparation for each step.

Ingredients and Directions

Step 1

Ingredients:

• 1 cup toor daal (yellow lentil daal)
• 2 ½ cups water
• 10-12 raw peanuts
• ½ teaspoon grated ginger
• ¼ cup chopped tomatoes (or lemon as per taste)
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Directions:

• Soak the daal for half an hour in water.
• Add the rest of the above ingredients and pressure cook until soft (it takes about 2-3 whistles in the pressure cooker).

Step 2

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sugar or jaggery (optional)
• 1 small green chilly, cut into small pieces (spicy as per preference)
• 1 tablespoon cilantro
• 1/2 tea spoon of mustard seeds
• 1 table spoon oil
• A pinch of asafoetida (hing powder optional)
• ¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi daana)
• 2 cloves
• ½ inch cinnamon stick
• 2-3 curry leaves
• 1/2 tea spoon red chilly powder (if using paparika you can add 1 tea spoon)
• ½ teaspoon coriander powder (dhana powder)
• Salt, as per taste

Directions:

1. Add 2 more cups of water and let it boil on low heat.
2. As it boils, add curry leaves, sugar (or jaggrey but its optional), salt, coriander powder, the cinnamon stick and green chillies.
3. In a separate small pot or pan, heat the oil.
4. Add the cloves and fenugreek seeds.
5. Once the seeds start to become slightly brownish in color, add the mustard seeds.
6. When mustard seeds start popping switch of the flame and add asoafoetida, and red chilly powder and then pour the whole mixture into the boiling daal (ensure that chilli powder do not turn black and be careful that the oil does not splatter).
7. Let the daal cook for 20-25 mins to get a nice consistency.
8. Sprinkle some cilantro on top, and serve with hot cooked rice.

Note: For those who do not like sweet flavor should not add jaggery/sugar.

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