Name: Daal aur chawal (Pakistani-style dhal)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Pakistani
Ingredients: ¼ cinnamon stick; 150 g (5½ oz/ ⅔ cup) dried split yellow mung beans (moong dhal); 1 tablespoon fried onion; chopped coriander (cilantro); 1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds; 3 dried red Kashmiri chillies, broken in half; ½ teaspoon ground turmeric; 6 cherry tomatoes, halved; 1 teaspoon ground cumin; a pinch of asafoetida; 1½ teaspoons ground coriander; 1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil; 2 garlic cloves, crushed; 1 fresh curry leaf sprig, leaves picked; a pinch of Chaat masala; 1 teaspoon cumin seeds

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy
Ready in
1 hr 20

Appears in

Lands of the Curry Leaf

By Peter Kuruvita

Published 2018

About

We ate a lot of dhal during our journey through the subcontinent in 1969. Dhal is comfort food, and variations of it abound. When I first encountered this dish, the first thing that struck me was the use of dried split mung beans, instead of orange or yellow lentils. Every household in this region has a slightly different version, so feel free to tailor the taste to suit your own family.