Simple Dal Tadka

Dal Tadka (or Tarka) is a simple Indian lentil dish. Its flavor comes from the tempering added at the end which contains some simple but delicious flavors. This is just one way to make this dish; there are probably as many temperings as there are combinations of spices, and the great thing about this dish is that you can absolutely experiment with different spices in the tempering. You can even make a different tempering for each bowl of lentils if you want.

You will need:

• Lentils
• Water
• Salt
• Spices
• Oil
  

Lentils

This dish is best when made with some combination of dal, which is just the word people from the Indian subcontinent (and others) use to describe various split lentils or peas. Split green peas are the most familiar for many people, and you can use them here, but traditionally split green (masoor dal) or black (urad dal) lentils, split mung beans (moong dal), or split chick peas (chana dal) or pigeon peas (toor dal) (or a comination) are used. Don't worry if that's deeply confusing. One way you may be able to find masoor dal is as red lentils.

The split nature of traditional dal means that there's no skin (which changes the texture) and they cook much more quickly. Dal really is the simplest way to make a nice smooth lentil soup, and it cooks on the stovetop without any need for a pressure cooker, but if you can't find any dal, you can still make this dish with regular green-brown lentils, or you can try split peas for a different take on split pea soup. If you use whole lentils, you'll probably need a bit more water and more time to get them to fall apart, which is what you want in this application. I sometimes like to add three or four different dals plus some regular lentils to give a bit of texture.

Two cups of lentils or dal will make about four servings, depending on how hungry people are and what you serve it with.

Water

I mention this only for completeness. You'll need twice as much water as dal, plus some to adjust for consistency.

Salt

There are schools of thought on when to add the salt, and we'll address them here rather than cluttering up the recipe itself: I add salt at the beginning of dal because there's no skin to toughen, which is what some people claim will happen if you add salt when you cook dried beans. I prefer to add salt as early as possible to any recipe, then adjust at the end, so that the salt has time to penetrate everything in the dish. But you can absolutely wait until the end and salt to taste, particularly if you're making whole lentils rather than split. I've never had a problem with lentils being tough because I salted them, but your mileage may vary.

Spices

I'm going to be nice and specific for once: you can optionally add turmeric and fenugreek at the beginning for color and a little subtle flavor, but for the tempering you will need a tablespoon of whole cumin seed and as many smashed garlic cloves as you feel like you want. I'm not judging people's choices on garlic, nor will I tell you how much to add because you'll probably always add more than I say.

Oil

Ghee (Indian clarified butter) will totally work here if you want to be traditional (and it tastes wonderful) but if you don't have that, now is the time to use vegetable oil rather than olive oil. Olive oil burns at the temperatures you want to hit. Use vegetable oil. And don't skimp. There's no other fat in this recipe, so use a few tablespoons at least.

You will also need:

A pot

This should be big enough to hold 2 cups of lentils plus 4 cups of water. Bigger is better here; lentils have a tendency to boil over.

A small tempering pan

Your smallest pan. Or pot. The smaller it is, the more your spices will be submerged in the oil when you temper.

Let's Get Dal-ed up

First, wash your lentils. I've never found a stone in my beans, but it only takes one time, so you can absolutely take this time to check, but the important thing, particularly for split dal, is to get the starchy stuff off the outside of the lentil. Rinse them in water until it's mostly clear. I like to put them in a bowl, but you can also just rinse them in a mesh strainer.

If you're cooking whole lentils, you can soak them here, if you've got the foresight to do so. Overnight is wonderful, but any amount of soaking will help. But, and here's the dirty secret, you don't have to. Lentils, even whole ones, cook easily enough without soaking. If you soak them it'll cut down on the time you have to cook them, but either way, you're sitting and waiting. Skip the soaking if you've got an hour to soak. And don't bother to soak split dal; there's no reason to do it.

Boil twice as much water as you have dal (in this recipe we're assuming 2 cups of lentils and 4 cups of water) with a dash of turmeric and fenugreek if you're adding them, and salt if you're adding it now. Add your rinsed, possibly soaked, drained dal, then immediately turn down to low ( very low medium low if you're doing nothing but whole lentils). Stir and cover, then let it simmer. How long? You want the lentils to break down some and no longer be chewy. If you're using whole lentils, this could take more than an hour of slow simmering, and they'll never get quite as creamy because of the skins, but in a minute we'll help break things up a little.

Check every so often to make sure it's a very low simmer, and stir to keep the dal from sticking to the bottom of the pot. If it's getting really thick, add a little water, but keep it relatively thick, maybe the consistency of pancake batter. You can always add more water but you can't easily get rid of too much.

Once the dal are tender (if using whole lentils, the skins should be separating from some of them; this is overcooked for normal lentils in normal circumstances) you need to break them up a little more, release their starches to thicken the dish, and just make things tastier. The easiest way to do this is with a whisk, but you can do a little mash and stir action with a spoon. You probably could use an immersion blender or regular blender, but it's really overkill for what you want. You're not looking for lentil pureé, just to break up some of the bigger bits.

I used three different types of dal plus some regular whole lentils here,
just so you can see how they all turn out.

You can hold the dal over low heat or just turn the burner off and let it sit, covered, while you make the tadka. Put a few tablespoons of oil, at least enough to cover the bottom of your small pan, in your small pan and heat over medium heat. Let it get nice and hot, shimmering certainly, not smoking but close to it. That's how the fireworks happen. Smash your garlic cloves, meaning put them under the flat of your knife and press down until they become mostly flat. You're not looking for a paste or a fine dice, just large chunks that have been flattened. That lets out all the flavor while remaining big enough that they won't burn.

Once your oil is hot, toss in the whole cumin seed and watch it splutter, as they say. It should snap, crackle, and pop in a way that makes those little cereal elves seem like Alka Seltzer by comparison. If it doesn't, your oil wasn't hot enough, but that's okay, just keep heating until you start to see bubbling around the cumin seeds. Fewer fireworks, but it'll still work. Then add the smashed garlic. That will probably precipitate another round of sputtering, but keep an eye on things, and if the garlic starts to turn golden, you're done here.

Take your small pan and pour the oil and spices over the top of your dal. Again, expect a little action; the hot oil will cause the liquid in the top layer of the dal to instantly turn to steam, but as long as you pour gently, you shouldn't get much more than some sizzling.

It's a little red because I added some chili, but the principle is the same: tadka into dal, sizzle sizzle.

Carefully scrape any remaining cumin or garlic out of your pan, then stir the tempering into the dal. This is family style; if you wanted to be fancy you could serve the dal into individual bowls and then drizzle each of them with some tempering, but that's advanced technique and you should probably try it once before you attempt fancy.

And that's all there is to it! If you make the dal a little thinner you can eat it like lentil soup, or a little thicker and it's great over basmati rice. Simple, delicious, healthy: dal has it all.

Variations

Obviously you can vary the types of dal you use if you're able to get hold of some different types. If you liked it with standard lentils, masoor dal or red lentils is the next thing to try, and after that give some of the others a shot. You can usually find them in the Indian section of better supermarkets, and there may be a little grocery somewhere near you that sells that if you ask the right questions.

But the real source of variation here is the tempering. Cumin and garlic are easy to come by and very friendly for the beginner, but the sky is the limit. Try a slow temper (heating over low rather than high heat and simmering the spices in the fat) of thyme in butter, add that to the lentils at the end, and then squeeze in some fresh lemon juice. Temper some chili flakes and coriander for a spicy, bright kick. Try caraway and mint for a taste combo that's very different. Or if you're lucky enough to be able to find fresh curry leaves and you're not making dal tadka with them, what are you doing with your life?

The dal in the photos, by the way, was made with a tempering of black cumin and paprika, which is why you don't see garlic. I also added some fenugreek leaves, mint, and cilantro at the very end, without tempering because they don't need to be. Served over rice, with a little chutney on the side, it's just one of a myriad of ways to do this, and most of them don't call for difficult-to-find ingredients (which is why I didn't tell you to go looking for black cumin and fenugreek leaves).

Basically, the trick is to find spices which will taste good together. By tempering them and adding them at the end you don't have to worry about cooking all the flavor out of them while you're making your lentils. If the spices will stand up to heat, like cumin, coriander, or other whole spices, use the quick temper, but if they're more delicate, like most herbs, try simmering them for a few minutes in melted butter over low heat instead.

Go out there and have lentils that don't taste like canned ham. You've got this. This is cookable.