Dal Fry (Restaurant Style)
A super easy, super delicious restaurant style dal fry! You’ll never need another dal fry recipe again! This has been my go-to recipe for years, it’s definitely a family favorite. We make it almost every week. It’s a staple recipe.
- Prep time
- 10 min
- Cook time
- 30 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1 cup Arhar dal (toor dal or split pigeon peas)
- 2 ½ cups Water (for pressure cooking)
- 3 tablespoons Oil
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 1 cup Red onion (finely chopped)
- 2 teaspoon Ginger paste or freshly grated or crushed
- 2 teaspoon Garlic paste or freshly grated
- 1 Green chili (finely chopped)
- 1 cup Tomato (finely chopped)
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon Red chili powder
- 1 teaspoon Coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon Cumin powder
- Salt (to taste)
- ½ - 1 cup Water (to adjust the dal consistency)
- 1 teaspoon Garam masala
- 1 ½ teaspoon Kasoori methi (Dried fenugreek leaves) (crush between palm before adding)
- 2 teaspoon Lemon juice or Lime juice
- 2 tablespoons Cilantro or coriander leaves (finely chopped)
Instructions
- 1
Take toor dal in a colander and wash under running cold until the water runs clear. Or rinse the dal 2-3 times in a bowl until the water is not cloudy anymore.
- 2
Take rinsed dal in a pressure cooker along with fresh water. Cover the cooker with a lid, put the weight on and pressure cook on medium heat for 2-3 whistles. (Instant pot: manual, high pressure for 5 minutes.) Let the pressure go down by itself and then open the lid.
- 3
While pressure is released, start cooking masala. Heat oil in a pan or kadai on medium heat. Once hot add cumin seeds and let them sizzle.
- 4
Add onion and sprinkle a little salt to speed up the cooking process. Cook until onion turns light brown or pink and super soft.
- 5
Add crushed ginger garlic and green chili. Mix and saute for 1 minute or until the raw smell of ginger garlic goes away.
- 6
Add chopped tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes are soft and almost mushy.
- 7
Add remaining salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder, cumin powder and coriander powder. Mix and cook for a minute, oil will starts to ooze out from the sides.
- 8
Add cooked dal and more water (if needed). Mix and let it simmer for 5 minutes on low. Do stir in between to make sure that the dal is not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- 9
Add garam masala and kasoori methi (crush between your palm before adding). Mix well.
- 10
Add lemon or lime juice, and mix.
- 11
Lastly, garnish with freshly chopped cilantro.