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Meera Sodha's vegetarian formula for tarka dal

There's a great deal to adore about ceramicist Maham Anjum. Her hands that move with all around rehearsed beauty on her earthenware wheel, forming huge, threatening looking rocks of mud into exquisite dishes and biryani pots. 

Her unsteady, wooden studio amidst a congested nursery that is filled in summer with hollyhocks, butterflies and an inquisitive little fox. 

Her work, obviously, out of which we ate this radiant dal. What's more, the way where she presented it: 'I simply put it all in a pot and mix it.' It's that straightforward, and now it is one of my preferred things to make and eat most weeks. 

Maham's dal 

This dal, which has been captured in one of Maham's handcrafted bowls, is made with the fast cooking mung dal, which are the de-husked, split yellow internal parts of green mung beans – search for it in huge grocery stores or Asian nourishment shops. Since this formula was first distributed in East, I've adjusted it by cooking out the tomatoes and garlic first, however Maham just tosses them into the pot with everything else. 

Prep 10 min 

Cook 45 min 


Rapeseed oil 
3 fat garlic cloves, stripped and minced 
2.5cm piece new ginger, stripped and ground 
250g vine tomatoes, (ie, 3 medium ones), cleaved 
300g mung dal 
½ tsp turmeric 
1 tsp bean stew pieces 
12 new curry leaves 
1½ tsp salt 
1 tsp cumin seeds 
½ tsp dark mustard seeds 
1 green finger bean stew, finely cleaved 
1 bunch new coriander, generally cleaved, to serve 

In a huge pot, heat two tablespoons of oil over a medium warmth and, when hot, include the garlic and ginger, and cook for three minutes, until they turn a pale shade of gold. Include the tomatoes, cook for five to six minutes, at that point include the dal, turmeric, bean stew drops, four of the curry leaves and a liter and a fourth of water. Put a positioned cover on the container and heat to the point of boiling. Turn down the warmth to a stew, leave the dal to cook, blending once in a while, for 30-40 minutes, until delicate and genuinely thick, at that point mix in the salt. 

At the point when the dal is about cooked, make the tarka. Warmth two tablespoons of oil in a little skillet over a medium warmth and, when it's smoking hot, include the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, green bean stew and staying eight curry leaves. At the point when the leaves fresh up and the seeds pop, which ought to occur inside the principal minute, take the tarka off the warmth and fill the dal. Mix to blend, sprinkle over the coriander and present with crisply steamed basmati rice.