I have eaten all the North Indian dishes only in restaurants. It used to be a treat only while going to restaurants. Chana Masala, Paneer butter masala are the two things I have tried before marriage. But used to never get the taste of a restaurant. That was because I used to not add kasturi methi and important things like that. Making the North Indian dishes used to be a mystery and now after watching lot of cooking shows and looking into lot of blogs I have started to do lot of recipes for chapathi other than the usual.
After coming to Nairobi, I have started to do dishes with fresh methi. Here we get methi, palak all fresh. Lot of settled Gujarati’s so the available vegetables are used a lot in the south as well. So here am going to give the recipe of my first North Indian side dish recipe, Methi Dal. It is very flavourful and is a very healthy dish.
Ok lets get to the recipe.
Cuisine: Indian(North) | Category: North Indian Side Dishes | Prep time: 10 to 15 mins | Cook time: 20 mins | Recipe Source: Spice Up The Curry |Serves: 4
Ingredients
- Moong Dal – 1/2 cup
- Toor Dal – 1/2 cup
- Masoor Dal – 1/2 cup
- Fresh methi – 1 cup tightly packed
- Onion – 1 big sized
- Tomato – 2 medium sized
- Ginger Garlic paste – 1 tbsp.
- Green chilies – 3 nos. cut into half or slit open
- Turmeric – 1/2 tsp.
- Red chili powder – 1 to 2 tsp.
- Salt – As needed
- Coriander leaves – Finely chopped
- Lime – Juice of half
To Temper
- Butter – 1 to 2 tsp.(optional)
- Oil – 2 tsp.
- Cumin – 1 tsp.
METHOD
- Chop onion and tomato.
- Cut the stem of the methi and wash them thoroughly to get rid of the mud. Chop them.
- Take three dal’s together in a pressure cooker and cook them until they are mushy.
- Take a vessel and add butter and oil.
- Crackle cumin, and add the green chilies.
- Then add the onion and cook until the onions turn translucent.
- Now add turmeric and ginger garlic paste and cook until the raw smell goes.
- Time to add the chopped methi leaves. Saute till the leaves wilt the water and get cooked till the raw smell of methi is gone.
- Add tomatoes at this stage along with some salt. Cook until they turn mushy.
- Now add the red chili powder. Cook for few mins without burning the spices.
- Add the cooked dal with water, cover & simmer till everything blends together.
- Add coriander leaves and switch off the stove. Now add the juice of half the lime.
- Methi Dal is ready. Serve it with roti, poori, phulka and any naan varieties.
NOTE: Instead of adding the methi leaves directly you can add salt to the methi leaves, allow it to rest for 10 mins and then squeeze out the excess water from them and add the same.
You can make this dal using just moong dal or toor dal.
Visual clicks
Serve the Methi dal with Rice, Phulka, Roti’s or Naan varieties. Do leave your comments if you liked it.
