Name: Dhal
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 1½ tsp chilli powder; 1½ tsp cumin seeds; 2½ tsp ground coriander; 2 tbsp coconut, sunflower or rapeseed oil; 1½ tsp mustard seeds; 1½ tsp salt; a few sticks of cassia bark; 5–6 curry leaves; 100 g tomatoes, finely chopped or puréed; 1 tsp turmeric; 200 g split red lentils; 2½ tsp ground cumin; toasted sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds; olive oil or ghee for drizzling; 2–3 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander; 2 tsp finely grated ginger; half a lemon

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Biting Biting

By Urvashi Roe

Published 2022

About

Dhal is the centre of the Gujarati universe as far as I am concerned. I cannot go more than a week without having it – especially in winter. Every one of us will make dhal in a different way with a different mix of spices so I’m sharing a version which is fast and easy to use as a base to build from. My daughter Amber doesn’t like cumin so I know she will omit that when she eventually starts cooking dhal for herself.

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