JUNE 2015: Dal

photoed by A. Rajan

You may understand the value of the home cooked comfort food when you go on a vacation. 

So anyway, we went for this awesome Canadian rockies holiday and there I got to sample variety of delicious food. But what you cook and are used to, start dancing on your palate... of course, it's all in the mind.

So, I love my Dal & Rice combination with a generous drizzle of clarified butter or ghee on top of that. It's incredibly nutritious and full of protein.

I cook mostly mung bean dal or lentils (yellow in color). It is easy to digest and it's an excellent meal, according to Ayurveda.

Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

1 cup yellow mung beans or lentils

Few chopped green chillies 
--(I used four. I like to have little zing...)

--(One can use less or omit it.)

1 chopped tomato

Salt to taste

Tbsp of oil

Half a tsp of black mustard seeds

2 cloves mashed garlic

Half tsp of turmeric

Pinch of Asafoetida powder (hing)

Handful of chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)

Procedure:

Wash the beans two three times and then, 

Soak the beans in double or more water. 

Cook the beans till it gets mushy and done. 

Now, add chopped green chillies and chopped tomato.

Add salt to this and let it cook together. 

Now take a little oil in a small pan and once the oil is hot.

Add mustard seeds, mashed garlic and asafoetida powder. 

Let the mustard seeds crackle, and let the garlic become     
     golden, and temper your Dal with this.

Immediately close the lid in which Dal is being cooked, so   

     that the fragrance of tempering doesn't escape and 

     marries into the dal; making it flavorful.

Once done, just garnish the Dal with chopped cilantro.

I eat this with plain white rice and drizzle of ghee and a wedge of lemon on the side. This is my simple Dal. One can add onions or veggies and experiment, as they like. I prefer it simply like this, and I enjoy it nonetheless. 

Slurp! :-)

--A.R.