Chana Dal is one of my favorite dals to enjoy with rice. Made with fresh ingredients and a handful of spices, this dal is packed with flavors!
It is also vegan and gluten-free.
Chana dal had a special place in my heart growing up. Mainly because it wasn’t made everyday in my house unlike toor/arhar dal
Mom made chana dal once in every few months when we got super bored of eating the same toor dal everyday. And so it always felt special.
would come back from school and if I saw chana dal on the table, I would be delighted. Because it was a change from the regular dal.
This dal isn’t as light on the stomach as toor or moong dal and probably that’s the reason that it wasn’t made everyday in my house.
We used to love it with rice also with
warm rotis. Most of the time it had a tadka (tempering) of onion, tomatoes, cumin seeds etc.
Now, I make a version in my kitchen quite often and I am sharing that with you guys. I
already have an instant pot chana dal recipe on the blog, that’s much easier and one pot so if you are looking for a super simple recipe, check that out.
For this recipe, I use few extra spices and steps and also boil the dal first and then make the masala in a separate pan and then mix the two. This is hands down my favorite Chana Dal Recipe and I am excited to share it with you guys
Mom made chana dal once in every few months when we got super bored of eating the same toor dal everyday. And so it always felt special.
I would come back from school and if I saw chana dal on the table, I would be delighted. Because it was a change from the regular dal.
This dal isn’t as light on the stomach as toor or moong dal and probably that’s the reason that it wasn’t made everyday in my house.
We used to love it with rice also with warm rotis. Most of the time it had a tadka (tempering) of onion, tomatoes, cumin seeds etc.
Now, I make a version in my kitchen quite often and I am sharing that with you guys.
I already have an instant pot chana dal recipe on the blog, that’s much easier and one pot so if you are looking for a super simple recipe, check that out.
For this recipe, I use a few extra spices and steps and also boil the dal first and then make the masala in a separate pan and then mix the two. This is hands down my favorite Chana Dal Recipe and I am excited to share it with you guys!
This recipe is so flavorful and what makes it work is the use of fresh ingredients. This is a pakistan and punjab style Chana Dal since I am from pakistan, this is how I make it.
There’s freshly chopped onion, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, chili and cilantro. The fresh ingredients impart so much flavor to this recipe and so do not substitute them with store bought and canned stuff.
Like do not use store bought ginger-garlic paste here, it just won’t have the same flavor.
The recipe also works because all the wonderful spices and the fresh ingredients come together beautifully. The dal also has a smoky flavor which is imparted to it through the dhungar method (infusing smoky flavor through hot charcoal).
This is optional but the smokiness does elevate the flavors.
Ingredients
This recipe uses onion, tomatoes which forms the base of the masala and a handful of spices to flavor the dal.
Chana Dal: this recipe uses 100% chana dal and no other lentils. If you think only chana dal can be too heavy for your stomach, you can definitely replace 25% of it with a lighter alternative like toor or moong dal.
Onion & tomato: of course the key ingredient for the masala of this dal so do not skip on either of these.
Garlic-Ginger-Chili: I love using fresh ginger and garlic here which I crush using a mortar and pestle and then use in the recipe. The freshly pounded ginger and garlic give so much flavor to this dal.
Spices: I have used a bunch of spices in this recipe though not in large amounts. The quantity of the spices is less since this is a dal and not a curry and we don’t want it to be totally overpowered with spices.
Cilantro: of course a good amount of cilantro is a must for me in dal and this recipe is no exception.
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