Gujarati Dal | Khatti Meethi Dal | Arhar Dal | Tuver Dal

In a Gujarati home, this daal is a staple food. Whatever else may have been cooked, you will find either this daal or kadhi made everyday to be eaten with rice. Though i don't make it everyday, i make it often as all of us like it :)

In different homes it is made differently, some make it thin, some make thick. Then some use kokam, some use imli and some use Lemon. Some use Sugar and some use Jaggery. My mom makes it a little thinner than what i like as my papa likes it that way, but I like it the way my grandmom makes it..thick, with jaggery and lemon...Perfectly sweet and tangy :)

And everybody in my family says that my daal tastes like my grandmom's daal, you know how proud i feel?!?!!

Well, the secret of the tasty daal is nice boiling over low flame. and secret behind my daal tasting good is that i keep it on the flame and then tend to forget that i am cooking it, till i get the delicious aroma of daal wafting through the house and telling my nose that it is cooked and about to get burnt ;) Some advantage of forgetfulness ;)

Gujarati Daal / Khatti Meethi Dal / Tuver Dal 

Here is the recipe for it..

Ingredients:

Toor daal (Arhar Daal) - 1/2 cups soaked and pressurecooked

Red chili powder - 1/4 teaspoon (or to taste)

Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Dhania-Jeera powder - 1 and 1/2 teaspoon

Green chili and ginger paste - 1/4 teaspoon (optional)

Salt to taste

Grated Jaggery - 1/4 cup

Oil for tadka - 2 tablespoon

Rai/ Sarson for tadka - 1/2 teaspoon

Methi seeds for tadka - 1/4 teaspoon

Hing for tadka - 1 pinch

1 medium sized Lemon

Method:

1) Pressure cook the daal nicely.

2) Once it is cooked, beat it thoroughly using a beater or Valoni/Ravoi. You should not be able to see any grain of daal, it should all be liquidy.

3) Add water and make it of thin consistency (like sambaar)

4) Now add salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder (if using green chili and ginger paste then you can reduce this to 1/4 spoon), green chili and ginger paste, dhania-jeera powder and jaggery.

5) Mix well and keep on low flame. Keep stirring till the jaggery is dissolved, if you leave it un-dissolved then it will get burnt.

6) Now you can leave it on low flame, occasionally pop up in the kitchen and stir the daal.

7) Once the daal thickens (may take upto 20-30 minutes), it's the time for tadka.

8) So in a kadai (my mom uses a small iron bowl for tadka, as it adds extra iron to the daal), take oil, add rai/sarson to it and put on a low flame.

9) once the rai crackles, add methi seeds, and as they turn brown, add hing and turn off the flame.

10) pour this tadka over daal and mix well. Boil daal on high flame for 3 minutes

11) Add the juice of 1 medium sized lemon and the daal is ready.

With rice and ghee it tastes heavenly!!! If you eat ghee, then do add it. Ghee notches up the taste to a higher level.

Notes:

1) You can keep consistency as per your liking. for thinner consistency add more water, but boil it properly.

2) You can also have the daal with roti.

3) It goes well with any sweet made of wheat, like churma laddu, kansaar, laapshi etc.

Gujarati Daal / Khatti Meethi Dal / Tuver Dal 

Gujarati Daal / Khatti Meethi Dal / Tuver Dal 

Gujarati Daal

+techie ZM