Masoor Dal with Curry Leaf Tadka
A thirty-minute red lentil dal, finished the Kerala way with mustard seed and curry leaves crackling in hot coconut oil.
Thirty minutes and no plan is its own category of weeknight, and this is what I cook in it. Red lentils don’t need soaking. They go from the bag to the pot to collapsed and creamy in about twenty minutes, and while they simmer you can slice three cloves of garlic and a couple of shallots and dig out the curry leaves .
The tadka is the whole point. Plain lentils are mild. Without the last two minutes this would be dinner, but nobody would ask what you did. The mustard seeds pop, the garlic goes gold, and the curry leaves hit the oil with a crackle you can hear from the next room. That pour is what people smell when they walk in.
Everything before it is just cooking lentils.
The finish leans Kerala, with coconut oil, mustard seed, dried chile, and curry leaves. The dal underneath is a shortcut. Masoor is what I reach for on a Tuesday because it cooks faster and the regular grocery store carries it, shelved with the dried beans. Curry leaves take a little more looking. .
Keep the tadka at medium heat, not high. Mustard seeds pop fast and burn faster, and a scorched tadka doesn’t recover. If the garlic slides past gold into brown, start over with fresh oil; it costs you a minute and two tablespoons of oil. Serve this over rice, or with a roti, or spooned over roasted cauliflower on a night when rice isn’t happening.
Method
- 1
Rinse the lentils. Put the lentils in a bowl, cover with cold water, and swirl with your hand. Pour off the cloudy water and repeat two or three times, until it runs mostly clear. Drain.
Red lentils heaped in two wooden spoons on weathered woodPhoto: Kamakshi subramani on Unsplash - 2
Bring to a boil and skim. Combine the lentils, 3 cups of water, the tomato, ginger, and turmeric in a medium pot. Bring to a boil over high heat and skim off the foam that rises.
- 3
Simmer until they collapse. Drop the heat to medium-low, set the lid ajar, and simmer, stirring once or twice, until the lentils have lost their shape and gone creamy, 18 to 22 minutes. If it thickens enough to stick, add a splash of water.
- 4
Season and loosen. Stir in the salt and mash the dal a few times against the side of the pot with the back of a spoon. Add water, up to 1 cup, until it falls from the spoon in a slow ribbon rather than a lump. Keep it warm over the lowest heat while you make the tadka.
- 5
Pop the mustard seeds. Set a small skillet over medium heat and add the oil. When the oil shimmers, add the mustard seeds. They’ll start to pop and skitter within a minute. When the popping is steady, add the cumin seeds and the chiles and cook until the cumin darkens a shade and smells toasty, about 20 seconds.
- 6
Soften the shallot, then the garlic. Add the shallot and stir for about a minute, until it starts to soften. Add the garlic and stir until its edges turn pale gold, 30 to 45 seconds. Pull the pan off the heat the moment the garlic is gold. Brown garlic is bitter garlic.
- 7
Crackle the curry leaves. Hold the pan away from you and drop in the curry leaves. They’ll spit and crackle for a few seconds and turn glossy and a shade darker. Swirl the pan once.
- 8
Pour it over. Tip the whole tadka, oil and all, over the dal and scrape the pan. Cover for a minute so the aroma settles into the lentils.
- 9
Finish with lime. Stir, squeeze in the lime juice, and taste for salt. Scatter the cilantro over the top if you have it.
- 10
Serve. Spoon over rice or alongside roti. The dal keeps thickening as it sits, so loosen it with a little hot water if you come back for seconds.
Estimated from USDA FoodData Central (split red lentils, FDC 174284; coconut oil; tomato; shallot; garlic) for the dal alone, without rice. Sodium runs about 220 to 260 milligrams a serving with the salt as written, before any added at the table. Varies with brands and portions.
Keeps
Cooled and covered, the dal keeps in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Get it into the fridge within two hours of cooking; a wide, shallow container cools faster than a deep one.5 It thickens as it sits, so loosen with a splash of water and bring it back to a full simmer when you reheat. It freezes well for up to 3 months in portions. The tadka’s aroma fades by the second day, which is normal. If you’re cooking ahead, make a small fresh tadka (a teaspoon of oil, a pinch of mustard seed, a few curry leaves) and pour it over the reheated dal.
Swaps
Oil. Coconut oil is the Kerala choice and gives the tadka its particular smell. Any neutral oil works. Ghee is wonderful here but takes the dish out of vegan territory.
Curry leaves. There’s no real substitute, and curry powder is a different thing entirely (a spice blend, not the leaf). If you can’t find them, skip them and add an extra squeeze of lime at the end. Fresh leaves keep in the freezer for months and go straight from frozen into the hot oil; they spit harder than fresh, so hold the pan well away from you.
Mustard seeds. Black or brown are standard. Yellow are milder and fine.
Chiles. Any small dried red chile works. Kashmiri chiles give color with less heat; a quarter teaspoon of red chile flakes stands in if that’s what you have.
Tomato. Half a cup of canned diced tomatoes, undrained, in place of the fresh one.
More vegetables. Stir two handfuls of spinach into the finished dal and let it wilt, or add a diced zucchini to the pot for the last 8 minutes of simmering.
If you count carbohydrate. A serving of the dal alone runs about 35 grams of carbohydrate with 6 grams of fiber. Rice on the side is on top of that, so I’d measure the rice and let the dal be the bigger half of the bowl.
After bariatric surgery. A thinner, fully smooth dal (run it through a blender, and leave out the chiles and the lime for now) can fit a pureed stage, but your surgical team sets the stage, the portion, and the timing. Ask them before you add it.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Lentils, pink or red, raw (FDC ID 174284, SR Legacy). FoodData Central. Published April 2019. Per 100 g: 358 kcal, 23.9 g protein, 10.8 g fiber, 63.1 g carbohydrate, 2.2 g fat; 1 cup = 192 g. fdc.nal.usda.gov
- Moravek D, Duncan AM, VanderSluis LB, Turkstra SJ, Rogers EJ, Wilson JM, Hawke A, Ramdath DD. Carbohydrate Replacement of Rice or Potato with Lentils Reduces the Postprandial Glycemic Response in Healthy Adults in an Acute, Randomized, Crossover Trial. J Nutr. 2018;148(4):535-541. doi:10.1093/jn/nxy018. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Sadgrove NJ, Padilla-González GF, Leuner O, Melnikovova I, Fernandez-Cusimamani E. Pharmacology of Natural Volatiles and Essential Oils in Food, Therapy, and Disease Prophylaxis. Front Pharmacol. 2021;12:740302. doi:10.3389/fphar.2021.740302. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Frank D, Appelqvist I, Piyasiri U, Wooster TJ, Delahunty C. Proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry and time intensity perceptual measurement of flavor release from lipid emulsions using trained human subjects. J Agric Food Chem. 2011;59(9):4891-4903. doi:10.1021/jf104376b. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service. Leftovers and Food Safety. Updated July 31, 2020. fsis.usda.gov