Dal Pancharatan

The good old comfort food - dal chawal. And how many variations of dal are possible. Each lentil has a unique taste. My personal favourite is the green moong dal. Given the variety of lentils, it also means there are multiple permutations we can have. How about we combine five delicious lentils? Sounds good to me!

In this recipe I used equal proportions of toor, masoor, yellow moong, green moong, channa dal. You can replace the yellow moong with the black urad dal as well. I believe the original recipe uses the mot dal as one of the five lentils. But I usually do not have it on hand, so I went with the above combination. 

Recipe (makes 6 servings)

Ingredients

Toor dal - 2 tbsp

Masoor dal - 2 tbsp

Yellow moong dal -  2 tbsp

Green moong dal - 2 tbsp

Channa dal - 2 tbsp

Onions - finely chopped - 1 large

Tomato - finely chopped - 1 large

Green chillies - slit - 2

Salt- to taste

Coriander powder (dhania) - 1 tsp

Pepper - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - 5 leaves

Cumin - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tsp

Coriander - finely chopped - 1 tbsp

Method

Wash and soak the dal for 20 minutes.

Add sufficient water and boil the dal in the cooker until soft and mushy.

Use a wooden ladle to mash the boiled dal. 

Heat oil in a heave bottomed vessel. Add curry leaves, green chillies and cumin. When the cumin seeds splutter, add the onions and saute. Add turmeric and continue frying until transparent. Add the tomatoes and fry until soft and mushy. Add the coriander powder, pepper and salt. Add the dal and sufficient water for the right consistency, and let it come to a boil. Close the lid and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Switch off the flame and add coriander leaves to garnish. Server hot with rice or roti. 

Verdict

This goes well with roti or rice or even dal bati.