Nutrition-Packed Dal

Sometimes you don’t want to go the whole hog and cook a complete meal but also want to ensure your family gets a nutritious meal, for times like this you can try this nutrition-packed dal which you can serve with just rotis and chutney or achaar and it will be a complete meal. This dal also uses masoor and moong dal instead of arhar (tuvar or toor) dal which is heavier and more difficult to digest.

Here is the recipe…

Ingredients

1 ½ cup of masoor dal.

½ cup of moong dal,

100 grams paneer diced,

1 cup of green peas,

2 bay leaves,

2 medium sized tomatoes (chopped),

1 big onion (sliced),

4 finely sliced green chillies,

1 inch of ginger chopped fine,

1 tsp coriander powder,

A pinch of sugar,

1 tbsp ghee,

1 tbsp oil,

½ tsp garam masala,

¼ tsp cumin seeds,

1 pinch of asafoetida,

1 whole red chill,

Salt to taste

Method

Roast the moong dal lightly till it turns slightly brown. Wash both the dals and cook them together till soft. Mash them well.

Heat some oil on a non-stick tawa and fry the paneer cubes lightly till they turn light brown (you can also use the paneer cubes without frying them).

Heat 1 tbsp oil, add the sliced onions and green chilles and fry till golden brown. Then add the chopped tomatoes and green peas and sauté for sometime. Now add the ginger, garam masala powder, sugar, bay leaves and coriander powder. Fry this well till the peas are cooked.

Fold in the dal and the fried paneer cubes, salt to taste and water as required. Simmer till done.

Heat the ghee and add the cumin seeds, asafoetida and red chilli. Once the cumin seeds pop pour over the dal. Serve hot with rotis.

I served it with ragi and wheat rotis, spinach spiked with fennel and ginger, pumpkin sabzi (made by my mother) and ginger-flavoured buttermilk.