Gujarati Dal from Sukham Ayu | Indian Cooking Challenge for January | How to make Gujarati Dal Step By Step Recipe!

I was really very late in choosing a recipe for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge. I almost thought I will give a month's break when I happen to talk to Pratibha. Over our conversation when she happened to ask about Indian Cooking Challenge, it struck me that I could choose a recipe from their book. When I asked her for a simple yet an authentic dish from their book, Pratibha was most generous to share this Guajarati Dal from their Award Winning book, Sukham Ayu - a vegetarian cookbook of easy & healthy recipes. This is a dish that Jigyasa remembers from her childhood days and one that evokes wonderful memories.

I was immediately all for it and asked her to send me the recipe details right away. I could sense the excitement from all the members when I had announced this challenge. Apart from this I also had another exciting news on hand, which I said will be shared today

I am so excited to share that Pratibha and Jigyasa are happy to gift a copy of Sukham Ayu to One lucky dip Winner.

Once all the members post this challenge on their blogs, the authors will check the participating blogger and select one by doing a Lucky dip. I will be announcing the winners once this is done. The book will be shipped to the winner. I will contact the winner through email for their mailing address.

Disclaimer: I have not received any compensation in doing this review. I have only received an electronic copy of the recipe and all copyright lies with Jigyasa Giri & Pratibha Jain, Authors of Sukham Ayu. The recipe is reproduced here, though in my own words,  with the Authors permission.

Coming to the recipe, as expected I waited for the last weekend to try out this recipe but wanted to remain true to the ingredients and went in search to get those items that I didn't have. Like the recipe called for Kokum, Dried Dates and yam etc. I have never cooked with Yam till now and I thought I should really take this opportunity to try it out. I couldn't find Kokum but got Yam and dried dates.

I followed the recipe to T other than changing some measurements

Step by Step to make Gujarati Dal

Pressure cook the toor dal with turmeric and few drops of oil

Churn it with a lentil masher

Soak the Dried Dates in hot water for 10 mins

Remove the seeds and halve them. You can use the water that it was soaked it.

Chop the Drumsticks, Yam, have the Jaggary, Green Chilies, Ginger ready.

Add all this to the cooked dal along with water.

Then add Coriander and Cumin powder.

Next goes the raw groundnut into the dal.

Ingredients for the tempering

Dhal cooking in the final stage.

GUJARATI  DAL
Source : Sukham Ayu, (reproduced here with Authors permission)

For cooking the dal

Split red gram / Toor Dal - 3/4 cup
Turmeric powder ½ tsp
Few drops of oil

For making Gujarati Dal:

Dry soft kokam - 4-5 pieces / Tamarind pulp - 2 tbsp ( I used Tamarind pulp)
Jaggery  - 1 tsp
Hard dry dates, halved   - 4 (opt)
Drumstick - 2
Yam  - 4-5 pieces, 1 inch cubes
Raw Groundnuts - 1 tbsp
Green chillies, slit - 4
Ginger, grated -  1 inch piece
Coriander powder  - 1 tsp
Roasted Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/4 tsp
Coriander leaves to garnish
Salt to taste

For tempering:

Ghee  - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds  - 1/2 tsp
Dry red chillies - 2 long
Asafoetida powder a pinch
Curry leaves 5-6


Method to prepare:

For cooking the dal:

Wash the Toor dal and take it in a pressure cooker, add enough water to cover the lentils, add turmeric powder and oil. Pressure cook for 4 -5 whistles or till the dal is well cooked. Once the pressure falls, churn the dal well.

For making the dal.

Soak the dried dates in hot water for 10 mins.

Since I felt I might not be able to cook this dal for long as it is expected too, I pressure cooked it for 1 whistle for the drumstick, dates, yam to get cooked.

So remove the lid, add all the other ingredients (except garam masala, coriander leaves and tempering). Add 1 cup of water and simmer for another 15 mins, stirring occasionally.  At this stage I felt that I might not have enough time to cook for that long so I pressure cooked and them simmered.

For doing the tempering:

Heat a pan with ghee, add mustard. When it splutters add fenugreek seeds, cumin, red chilies, asafoetida and curry leaves

Pour this tempering into the simmering dal. Continue to boil for another 5 mins. Remove from stove, garnish with garam masala and fresh coriander leaves. 

Serve this with Rice or Roti

Notes:

When I started with boiling the dal with all the ingredients, I felt the dal might be too thin. But it was quite thick and creamy when I finished cooking. On hind sight I need not have pressure cooked the dal with all the ingredients as I ended up cooking for a while. Anyways I was happy the dal turned out so well.

All the vegetarians at home really enjoyed and kids will love to eat this with rice. Though we normally add raw groundnuts to dishes like pulusu which is mostly without dals, adding this to a dal was really so wonderful.

I loved munching on those dried dates and will surely look out to get my hands on Kokam to make this dal again with it.


To all my ICC members, please link your Gujarati Dal post to Mr. Linky.

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