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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.
Delicious! I’ve made it several times and will keep making it!
Absolutely loved this recipe and I’m even a first timer to this wonderful alternative to meat! Thank you for your tried and tested recipe which means I don’t have any of the “hard” work to accomplish when making something new!
I just subscribed and am looking forward to the updates and continued recipes!
Tthanks!
Thanks for the lovely 5-star recipe. It’s a super base to experiment a bit with and adjust for your own preferences.
In the blended mix i added half an onion, increased the garlic to a more reasonable amount and added some roast dried chillies. Super delicious!
P.S. many asafoetida on the market seem to be spice mixes with wheat flour hence may contain some gluten. Choose a mix using rice flour if you can find it.
Happy cooking and eating.
Florian http://www.flovision.net
“Chana Dal are brown chickpeas that have been split and skinned/polished. They have the same earthy nutty flavor profile as brown chickpeas”
Well, since this says they ARE brown chickpeas, that makes sense!
This has become a weekly staple, even my mom asked for the recipe which she now cooks at home on a regular basis too. We absolutely love it, thank you.
thats awesome!
Fabulous!
The taste of this recipe is fabulous but it took over 3 hours to make (I don’t have a pressure cooker). To save time, could I cook a large batch of dal until almost done and freeze it, then continue as the recipe states?
Yes you can freeze it. The chana dal is like split peas. if they are old, it takes them ages to cook
I bought some split chickpeas, but didn’t know how to cook them. I just made this recipe and I can not believe how delicious it is. I didn’t have a tomato, so I used paste. I also didn’t have the temper ingredients, so I added ground cumin to the tomato. All of that, and it still is delicious. Thank you so much.
Will be cooking split chick peas for 300 people. I am planning to cook 10 kg of split chick peas. How much fresh tomato should I use? Can I use crushed tomato cans instead? Do you have any recipe for Methi Matar Malai as well?
Woah 🙂 Yes you can use crushed tomato. For that large an amount, i would cook the split chickpeas separately and make the massala sauce separately. Make this bhuna masala https://fettabbau-trim.today/2017/01/bhuna-masala-sauce-30-minute-1-pot.html%3C/a%3E . That way you can heat portions of the split peas with the masala and simmer and serve as needed. And also adjust the flavor as needed with spices, salt etc.
Yes, use this recipe for methi malai matar. Use all fenugreek or other greens + fenugreek.
https://fettabbau-trim.today/2014/01/rainbow-chard-and-peas-in-creamy-gravy.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
So what is the difference between a dal and a curry?
Dal means lentils(whole, split lentils, all legumes, split peas etc). Dal is also the name for a dish made out of the lentils, a soupy/stewy dish. Like chana dal is split pea dal. It is like the term tea. Loose “Tea” is used to make stewed “tea”.
Curry is a generic name for a dish that is made with either of or a combination of veggies, beans, cheese, meats etc and Indian spices. It can be a wet curry with some sauce or a dry curry. There isnt a good translation in english for the Indian dishes, so many dishes like cauliflower subzi are called Cauliflower Curry.
Curry is also used differently depending on the country or person using the term. Curries in UK can be a generic sauce spiced with curry powder (curry powder is a spice blend which is a westernised blend and not indian). Thai, Indonesian, certain African cuisines also have curries which are very different from Indian curries.
Hope this helps!