Easy Dal Fry. Red and yellow lentils spiced with Indian spices and tempering. Easy, Vegan, Gluten-free Soy-free, nut-free. Serves 2 to 3

Jump to Recipe

This is Hubbs’ weekend mixed lentil dal fry. After experiments in the kitchen during the week, I generally want to stay out of the kitchen on the weekend. So its either eat out or he cooks 🙂

He usually will pick up red lentils (masoor dal) and petite yellow lentils (mung dal / split green gram) and make a version of this dal. Both the lentils are on the same shelf, else split peas :0 . He is also very generous with the tempering. He will chop up the entire onion, a bunch of garlic and ginger (which I forgot to add to the written recipe below when it was posted, though the dal will be fab with or without) and add the spices generously. The resulting dal always comes out fabulously delicious. He also incorporates some new tricks he picks up from his reads, like adding a splash of lemon to the onions or/and tomatoes. When I make dal, I think everyday Dal and tadka, and tadka(tempering) is usually a light flavoring. There are no such restrictions when hubbs cooks, so his tempering adds volume, tons of flavor, which works really well served up with a veggie side of gobi aloo, Indian pickle, papadum, rotis and rice. Ah, bliss.

Yellow lentils (mung dal) take longer to cook, hence the red lentils will break down in the dal. The porridge like consistency is the preferred consistency when it comes to Indian dahls. If you like them less mushy, use 1 type of lentil (all red or all yellow) and cook until al-dente and then add the tempering.

What is your favorite weekend meal?





For Hindi and English names of some of the commonly used lentils and beans in Indian cuisine, see this post with lentil pictures! Or of course get my cookbook 🙂

There several ways to make dals. Dal Fry and Dal tadka are 2 of them. Both methods are slightly different methods of making the dal but give a different flavor profile. Lentils are cooked first in Dal fry and then different types of tadka or fry tadka are added. Dal tadka can have dal cooked with the volume ingredients like onion, tomato etc, and a tadka/tempering of just oil and spices added at the end.

More Dals from the blog

Pictured below with high protein spiced flatbreads (methi thepla) I make for hubbs to take along on his hikes.