Vegan Dal Dahl Recipes

Thecha Dal – Red Lentil Dal with Blistered Chilies and Garlic(soy-free, gluten-free)

Richa — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 11:42:00 +0000

Thecha dal, an Indian red lentil dal that you know and love with a spicy, nutty, umami-packed addition! Blistered chilies garlic are pounded with peanuts to make a chili chutney, and swirled to the lentil soup to make a flavorful dal!

Thecha is a green chili condiment often served alongside many Indian dishes. This green chili chutney from the Indian state of Maharashtra is the preferred side with flatbreads like Bhakri( millet or sorghum flatbread). It is a spicy, nutty mix of green chilies, garlic, and peanuts, lightly blistered and then ground up with a mortar and pestle into a coarse mixture.

We make the Thecha chutney from scratch. It is a delicious spicy garlic chili chutney! You can also serve it as a side, like a chutney, or add to sandwiches or to your Indian spread.

In this Lentil dal, Thecha, the roasted green chili, garlic, peanut condiment gets swirled into this dal for a complex flavor and comforting meal!

Use whichever lentils of choice and make double protein of Thecha to use later in sandwiches or on garlic bread!

Why You’ll Love Thecha Dal

cozy Indian dal with flavorful garlic-chili-peanut topping
easy, 30 minute meal
naturally soy-free and gluten-free

More Vegan Dal Recipes

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Vegan Dalcha – South Indian Lentil Meat stew

Richa — Sun, 14 Jan 2024 12:21:00 +0000

This South Indian Lentil meat stew – Dalcha, has lentils or split peas cooked with spices, coconut cream and meat to make a hearty stew that is served with rice Biryani. We use soycurls to make a glorious vegan dalcha.

Continuing this year with regional Indian cuisine with this delicious stew! Dalcha is a meat and lentil stew from Southern Indian cuisine, and it’s incredibly delicious. Dalcha usually contains lamb, but I’m using soy curls as the meat substitute.

You can also use seitan or other vegan chicken substitutes instead, if you don’t want to use soy curls. Or just omit and make a lentil stew.

Dalcha most often has Chana dal or toor dal as the lentils of choice. I use red lentils to make it a quicker meal. Dalcha has a fabulous blend of spices that work to elevate the lentils as well as the meat.

This recipe is a one-pot dish that you can serve over rice or with flatbread. It is often served with rice or biryani.

Why You’ll Love Vegan Dalcha

delicious, hearty, Southern Indian stew
one-pot, 35 minute meal
gluten-free and nut-free with a soy-free option

More Vegan Dal Recipes

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Dal Lasooni (Indian Garlic Lentils)

Richa — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 11:02:00 +0000

Dal lasooni( Indian garlic lentils) is a creamy lentil curry-style dal with a whole lot of complex flavor from whole spices and garlic. It needs 1 Pan! Use lentils of choice, beans or chickpeas for variation.

There are many many ways to make dals. Some are simple with a few spices or aromatics, while others are more complex flavored and creamy. This restaurant style dal Lasooni(garlic dal) has loads of garlic and a whole spices to add amazing deep flavor. As with any whole spices in curry, the flavor gets much more complex and stronger as the dish sits with the whole spices in it. So you want to make the dal ahead and use whatever spices you have.

If you don’t have all of the spices, it will still turn out amazingly delicious.

I use brown lentils in this dal lasooni, and you can also use green lentils, green mung beans, red lentils, chickpeas, whole urad, cooked white beans or any other cooked beans that you like!

Why You’ll Love Dal Lasooni

creamy, protein-packed dish with an amazing Indian flavor
naturally gluten-free, nut-free, and soy-free
one-pan dish

More Vegan Lentil Recipes

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Chataka Dal – Spicy Maharashtrian Toor Dal

Richa — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 12:34:33 +0000

Chataka Dal is a spicy flavorful Dal from the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is made from yellow split pigeon peas simmered along with tomatoes, then seasoned with a spicy chili tempering. Gluten-free, soy free and nut free.

I grew up in Maharashtra state and the dishes of this particular cuisine have a special place in my heart! Simple dals, bhaji like my jackfruit brown chickpea bhaji, saoji , kohlapuri, and Zunka are already on the blog! You can find misal pav and Amti dal in my cookbook.

This Chataka dal is another dish I love – it’s a simple dal with few ingredients but trust me, it’s far from simple in taste. It’s fiery with the added chili powder tempering. As always, you can adjust the spice level to your preference.

To serve, I serve with flatbread or rice. This dish goes incredibly well with rice but you could also serve this with cauliflower rice.

Dals are soul food with many variations from various states and regions in India.
There are several types of Dals and legumes used in Indian cuisine. You can see a list with pictures here.
This Chataka dal is quick and delicious. Traditionally it used 1-2 tablespoon of the Indian chili powder, but that is going to be a lot of heat for most . So I use less. You can use whichever lentils or split peas you have for this recipe. Just cook them long enough until tender and then add the tempering/Tadka.

More daal recipes:

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Caramelized Onion Dal

Richa — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 12:30:07 +0000

This rich and creamy Caramelized Onion Dal is the perfect comfort food for a cold day! It is bursting with flavor from caramelized onions and whole spices which are tempered in oil! Serve with rice for a delicious Indian meal.

Coming at you with a simple lentil dal that is bursting with flavor. This is another dal that I just made one night when I was craving a light dal and rice meal.

This caramelized onion dal is a creamy concoction of two types of lentils – red and yellow ones – which are cooked on the stove or using an Instant Pot and then simmered along with fragrant seasoned oil – tadka (called tempering).

The caramelized onions add a whole bunch of umami flavor while the cumin and black pepper mixture added to the tempering provide some heat and a refreshing flavor!

To take this dish to the next level of deliciousness we serve this lentil dish drizzled with another round of tempering. This second mix of whole spices fried in oil until sizzling and aromatic gets folded through the creamy dal just before serving

Use whatever lentils you have on hand. I used a mix of yellow and red lentils. You can cook them on the stovetop or in the instant pot. For all kind of Indian lentils with their names and pictures see my post here.

More daal recipes:

Dhaba Style Butter Dal (vegan)

Sabut Moong Dal Creamy Green Mung Beans

Vegan Handi Lentils (Creamy Indian Dal)

Masoor Dal Tadka (Indian Split Red Lentil Dal)

Spicy Urad Dal (Black Gram Lentil Dal)

Continue reading: Caramelized Onion Dal

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Vegan Kachori Pinwheels

Richa — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 11:56:34 +0000

These savory vegan Kachori Pinwheels are the perfect bite-sized snack for your Indian party! Savory puff pastry filled with a boldly spiced lentil (moong dal) filling. Nutfree Soyfree recipe. Gluten-free option.

Everyone loves samosas – they are easily available and what’s not to love about a flaky crispy pastry filled with spiced potato goodness?! Kachori is another Indian street food classic that you might not be as familiar with. Just like a samosa, it is a deep-fried, crisp, and flaky round Indian pastry stuffed with delicious lentil filling. Fillings can vary from spiced lentils, spiced peas, potatoes, just spices, nuts spices and raisins etc.

Both samosas and kachoris have a similar pastry dough. The difference is more in the shape. While samosas look like a pyramid, kachoris look like flattened discs. Samosas are filled with spiced potatoes. Daal kachoris are filled with lentils cooked with almost an equal amount of spices.

Kachori used to be my favorite post school snack(occasional fried goodies), so I wanted to find a quick and easy option that has all the flavor of this delicious Indian street food!

Enter kachori pinwheels!. To make the process of preparing these vegan pinwheels at home easier we are resorting to using store-bought puff pastry. Make this delicious filling. Spread on rolled out puff pastry then slice and roll into pinwheels. You can also make them into small hand pastries with the filling if you don’t want pinwheels. Try these this festive Diwali season.

More Indian Snacks:

Chickpea Kathi Rolls – Chickpea Chutney Wraps

Baked Moong Dal Samosas and 12 Vegan Holi Recipes. Glutenfree Soyfree Options

Vegan Samosa Pie

Chickpea Aloo Chaat Bowl with Date Tamarind Chutney

Samosa Pinwheels Spiced Potato Pinwheels

Continue reading: Vegan Kachori Pinwheels

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Sabut Moong Dal – Creamy Green Mung Beans

Richa — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 11:45:54 +0000

Sabut Moong Dal – a delicious creamy North Indian dal made with green mung beans in the Instant Pot with green mung beans simmered in a fragrant tomato coconut milk sauce flavored with aromatic Indian spices. Serve with rice or flatbread for a comforting meal. Gluten-free Soyfree Nutfree

Here’s a wholesome mung bean curry just in time for the first cooler days of the year! Indian Sabut Moong Dal – this North Indian Green Mung Bean Dal is delicious, creamy, super flavorful and so easy and quick to make in an Instant Pot. Sabut means whole. Moong/mung is a green colored small bean. It comes in whole form, that’s the green mung beans, and split form. The split can have the green skin or can have the skin removed. The No skin version is yellow and is called moong dal.

This sabut moong is paired with creamy coconut milk, chili, garlic, onions, tomatoes and warming Indian spices, this green mung bean curry is such a comforting meal ideal for those colder early fall days. Serve it with rice or naan bread for the perfect plant-based meal.

I love cooking with mung beans as they are very versatile. I use them for soup, kitchari , fritters and I even use them to make a delicious Vegan Omelet. They make a great addition to your pantry!

They can be easily found at Indian grocery stores but also at mainstream stores such as Whole Foods and Costco.

Other than the mung beans, we are mostly using very basic pantry ingredients such as garlic, onions, coconut milk, tomatoes, garlic and some spices like garam masala.

why you will love this Mung Bean dal

it uses a few ingredients
it needs just 1 pot
it is gluten-free Soyfree Nutfree
it has no onion garlic option in recipe notes
this is a versatile recipe. Use it with other lentils or beans!

More lentil recipes:

Lentil Orzo Salad

Vegan Lentil Sambusa Pie

Vegan Lentil Sausage Rolls

Vietnamese Inspired Caramelized Pork Bowls with Lentils

Mung Bean Sprouts, Seared Carrots, Kale Salad with Chili Lime Sesame Dressing

Black Eyed Pea and Mung Bean Stew. Mixed Dal.

Continue reading: Sabut Moong Dal – Creamy Green Mung Beans

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Dhaba Style Butter Dal (vegan)

Richa — Thu, 02 Jun 2022 11:45:51 +0000

The best recipe for Dhaba-Style Butter Dal made with red lentils and a restaurant-style tempering! Super rich but there is no cream in this. Try it! Gluten-free Soyfree Nutfree

Coming at you with the best butter dal ever! This dal is a famous dish straight from a Dhaba in my hometown. For those who don’t know, Dhabas are little roadside restaurants serving simple yet flavorful and rustic dishes. They are an essential and vibrant component of the Indian food scene.

As compared to five-star restaurants, Dhabas have their own charm and lure and so does this dal. Minimalistic ingredients but bang-on flavor. This dhaba style butter dal always impresses us. After all, all of us sometimes want a big old bowl of comfort food and this dal is just that.

It’s called Butter dal because the Dhaba fries the dal in hot spiced butter before serving.

Butter dal is a perfect and delicious Indian dal. This recipe just happens to be onion and garlic free. It’s one of those recipes that doesnt use them by default. Street vendors don’t always have refrigeration, and Onion and garlic in the tropical heat can get quite smelly so some chefs just make the dishes without them.

why you will love this vegan butter dal!

it’s an easy but super delicious dollar.
It is highly allergy friendly gluten-free nut free soy free.
It also is allium free and doesn’t use any onion and garlic and is Jain friendly.
uses mostly common Indian spices. Use whichever you have.
The dal can be served with rice or corn greens, with roti or naan, or baked potato, or as a soup.

In book news: The book got featured on Washington post!, veg news magazine top cookbooks, tree hugger, green matters and more!. I’m loving all the reviews, do keep them coming. I am loving the book remakes tagged on social! Please review the book on Amazon or other retailers as reviews are incredibly helpful to get the book consistent distribution and marketing.

There are some supply chain issues at some retailers. if the prices look too high it’s probably they are running out of stock. wait for a day or so for the stock issues to be resolved to get better pricing. Thank you to everyone who is buying the book and cooking from it!! .

More Indian dals:

Continue reading: Dhaba Style Butter Dal (vegan)

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Instant Pot Dal Bukhara – Dump and Done Creamy Black lentils

Richa — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 11:28:15 +0000

Instant Pot Dal Bukhara – try this easy creamy black gram lentils made in the Instant Pot using my dump and done method. A rich, creamy whole black gram curry recipe made with tomato puree, vegan butter and cashew cream. Gluten-free, Soyfree easily Nutfree

Indian Dal Bukhara is an everyday and simpler version of dal makhani using minimal ingredients. Unlike dal makhani, which is made with black gram lentils and kidney beans, dal bukhara is made only with the whole urad lentils (black gram lentils) . Dal Bukhara is traditionally slow-cooked overnight but we make a simple and quick version using the instant pot.

I made this super easy by 1. turning this into a dump-and-done recipe. There is no sautéing needed for this one! Just add everything to the instant pot, set and forget about it. 2. I also kept this dal onion and garlic free, as traditionally it can be made with or without, but you can add some if you like. The recipe depends on the chef and restaurant. To add some onion and garlic, Just sauté for 2-3 minutes, cancel sauté and proceed as the written recipe.

Onion and garlic are avoided by some for religious, dietary, yogic/Ayurvedic reasons. But sometimes they are simply skipped for reasons like their shorter shelf life once chopped. They get stale and smelly easily esp with the tropical heat and no refrigeration, so Indian street food vendors and small restaurants often omit them.

I use canned tomato purée instead of fresh tomatoes to reduce the time and work needed even further! So just dump everything in the pot and pressure cook, no sautéing needed.

Once done, open the lid and fold in non-dairy cream or non-dairy yogurt and tomato purée. Bring to a boil and serve this creamy dreamy dal. There are so many lentils and pulses and so many ways to make them based on different state and regional cuisines in India. Explore the Dals on the blog and also check out 22 Dals in my first book and another 14 in my upcoming instant pot book.

why will you love this instant pot dal bukhara recipe

It uses 8 main ingredients!
its a dump and done recipe. No standing around sautéing needed. Just add all ingredients to the pot, set it and forget it
It’s Glutenfree and Soyfree and easily made nutfree
its creamy and delicious and tastes like a decadent restaurant dish!

See recipe notes if using lentils other than black gram lentils (urad). Usually this dal is smoked using a charcoal (dungar method) . For the additional smoky flavor, fold in a bit of smoked paprika.

This recipe is adapted from Dal Bukhara recipe from my Indian kitchen cookbook and chef Sanjyot Keer’s Dal Bukhara recipe .

More dal recipes:

Continue reading: Instant Pot Dal Bukhara – Dump and Done Creamy Black lentils

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Vegan Handi Lentils (Creamy Indian Dal)

Richa — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 12:55:06 +0000

Lovers of lentil Dals and curries will be all over this recipe for Handi Lentils. Brown lentils in a rich and fragrant spiced onion bell pepper tomato yogurt sauce! Serve with rice or naan. Naturally Gluten free & Nut-free version included. No onion option.

Lovers of creamy and flavorful lentils – you HAVE to try this recipe for Handi Lentils! Handi dishes are super flavorful curries that are traditionally cooked in a clay pot (handi) over hours. This adds an earthy smoky flavor to the dish. Any pot works to cook and I use a saucepan to cook the lentils.

Handi dishes also have characteristic spice and sauce. Panch phoron (Indian Bengali 5 spice) or spices such as cumin, nigella and fenugreek seeds, are paired with garam masala or other spices in an onion bell pepper tomato sauce. You can make your own 5 spice mix and use whichever lentils you like to make this Handi Dal.

Handi cooking usually involves making a flavor packed spiced sauce base which is then mixed with various proteins like lentils, meat, chicken etc. Here, we use brown lentils which taste amazing with the sauce.

The spices used give it the characteristic Handi flavor. Bengali spice blend called panch phoron: a mix of mustard seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, and nigella seeds , which get toasted really well to add amazing flavor! Use whichever of these spices you have. See recipe notes for substitutes.

The tempered spices cook with caramelized onion, bell pepper, tomato and non dairy yogurt or cashew cream which adds creamy base that goes perfectly with the cooked lentils!

The longer you simmer the sauce, the stronger the flavor. As with all dishes that use whole spices, these handi lentils will taste phenomenal if given a couple of hours after cooking and it will taste even better the next day.

For options to make this without nuts, oil or onion, see recipe notes.

why you will love this dal

It’s got layers of flavor from whole spices
it uses easily available brown lentils
use any whole spices you have. But do try with the listed spices sometime
it’s allergy friendly, Glutenfree, Soyfree, Nutfree (depending on your non dairy yogurt )

MORE INDIAN Main DISHES TO TRY:

More Indian Dals to try

Continue reading: Vegan Handi Lentils (Creamy Indian Dal)

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