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Easy Chana Dal Recipe. Split chickpeas make a smooth nutty soup. Flavored with roasted cumin tempering. Make it in an Instant Pot Pressure Cooker or a Sauepan. Vegan Gluten-free Soy-free Recipe
This easy chana dal makes a fabulous weekday meal. Chana Dal are brown chickpeas that have been split and skinned/polished. They have the same earthy nutty flavor profile as brown chickpeas(which are also called bengal gram, Kala chana in Hindi). You can use split yellow peas or split pigeon peas to make this recipe as well.
Chana Dal has a great texture and flavor and is available online at Bob’s Red mill or anywhere where you can find bob’s red mill legumes or amazon(Chana Dal (Split Desi Chickpeas)
The dal is cooked to al dente, then cooked further with the flavoring ingredients like tomato, garlic, ginger and spices and then finished off with a toasty tempering of cumin seeds. Simple and delicious!
Serve the dal with flatbreads or rice or cooked grains and cooked or raw sliced veggies on the side.
Chana Dal beans look like split peas, but they are textured and not smooth on the outer side. Chana dal is often used in Northern Indian dals and used in southern Indian cooking in tempering, chutneys and sauces.
More Dals/Dahls from the blog
- Dal Makhani
- Kashmiri Dal – Split Pea & Yellow Lentil Soup
- Curried Chickpea stuffed Acorn Squash
- Dal Baati – Pigeon Pea Soup.
- Chickpea Sundal – Spiced Chickpea Coconut Salad.
Seattle and surrounding area people: There will be a march on April 25 at 2 pm through the University of Washington to protest the new animal lab.
Countries are banning animal testing, and major universities shrinking their animal research and the UW is actually planning to build a brand new expanded animal laboratory underground. Just this month, the acting UW President admitted to a NARN Board member that she had never even toured the current laboratories, (which have been cited numerous times for animal mistreatment). Please join in to be the voice for the animals that might end up tortured in this lab.
Also, Tweet storm today to keep the pressure on the city to send elephants Bamboo and Chai to sanctuary instead of another zoo. TweetSheet: https://www.freewpzelephants.org/docs/Tweet_Sheet.pdf
I will be giving away a few spice tiffins(masala dabba – pictured below) at the book launch! So keep an eye on the posts in May.
Did I mention that there are 25+ Dals in the book. 🙂 Legume love!
Video:
Easy Chana Dal Recipe. Split Chickpea Soup
Ingredients
Dal:
- 1/2 cup chana dal - split chickpeas, or use split peas
- 2 cups water
- 1 large tomato
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 inch ginger
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/3 to 1/2 tsp salt
To temper:
- 1/2 tsp oil
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- a generous pinch of asafetida hing
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Soak the dal for 1 hour to overnight. Drain and combine with 2 cups water in a saucepan. Cover and cook for 20 to 25 minutes over medium heat. Open the lid a crack if the water threatens to boil over.
- Meanwhile, blend the tomato, garlic, ginger, coriander, turmeric, paprika and cayenne with 1/2 cup of water until smooth.
- Add the tomato mixture and salt to the cooking split peas. Cover and cook for another 15 minutes or until the split peas are tender. Mash some of the split peas and continue to simmer until desired tenderness and consistency.
- Make the tempering: Heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add cumin seeds and cook until they change color. half to 1 minute. Add in the asafetida. Add half of this tempering, garam masala, cayenne to the simmering dal and mix in. Taste and adjust salt and spice. Take off heat, add cilantro and mix in. garnish with the remaining tempering and serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
hi. is there a substitute for asafetida? thk u
you can omit it.
Hii–can I substitute tomato puree for this? How much would I use? THanks so much 🙂
about a 1/3 cup
I have made this several times in my old stovetop pressure cooker. We love it. Simple and tasty. Thanks!
If you use instant pot do yo need to soak the daal first too?
You dont need to. I prefer to soak dals and beans even when pressure cooking as it helps cook them evenly. just a 15 minute soak in warm water will be enough.
I made this in my Instant Pot using the recommended amount of water. I debated changing it since I know that less water is usually required when using the IP since there is no evaporation, but thought I would follow the instructions since it specifically states the same amount of water for the IP. It was way too liquidy–not at all like the photo. My solution was to add additional chana dal (the same amount used originally) and cook an additional 8 minutes. This had a better consistency but I think it muted the flavors somewhat. I think next time I would used half the water called for in the stovetop recipe–and I would make it again!
You can reduce the water. The pictures are from a few hours later and the dal soaks up a lot of liquid while cooling. Indian Dals generally are made quite soupy traditionally. So there is room to adjust the liquid content to preference.
Hi! I just stumbled onto your site while looking for a Chana daal recipe. I’m making it today using the instant pot for the first time and wasn’t sure how to proceed. Any suggestions?
I just added it in the notes section of the recipe. I am adding IP specifi instructions to posts that use a pressure cooker on the blog in the next few weeks.
Hi! I cannot get cumin seeds for the tempering. Would it be better to try to temper the ground cumin I have or just throw the spices in the stew and let it simmer? Thanks!
Add the ground cumin to the stew and skip the tempering part.
Hello, I don’t have any tomatoes in the house. Just canned tomatoes… Do you think I can substitute? Thank you 🙂
Sure, canned tomatoes will do
Wondrous warming winter grub
Had to goooogle cilantro
Coriander in the uk !!
Tried it
Super dal curry. Its simple and tasty
Thanks for the recipe
As a single man living alone this
Helped me a lot
Great!