I thought I had a bag of lentils in the pantry. Sadly, I do not. I do, however, have a big bag of chana dal that I’ve had for a month or two and haven’t known what I think I should do with it. I did a quick search for a vegan chana dal recipe and wouldn’t you know it, something came up.
Nada, at OneArabVegan had an Indian recipe of her making
for an Easy Vegan Dal Tadka with a few things I didn’t have on hand and a few things I didn’t want to put in it. I really love finding actual vegan dishes from other cultures as opposed to trying to “veganify” things. The basics for this recipe were promising: tomatoes, garlic, ginger, red onion, tumeric, cumin and garam masala. How could this not be good?
So … I have no idea how this compares to an actual Dal Tadka, but these split chick peas that I just cooked up with these flavors is delicious. Here’s what I did:
2 cups chana dal
2 small red onions, diced
15 tiny tomatoes, quartered
7 cloves of garlic (I was finishing off a head)
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp ground turmeric
A couple of shakes of red chili flakes to taste
1/2 tsp garam masala
(salt) and pepper to taste
Saute your onions, tomatoes and garlic in 1/4 cup water or veggie stock until soft and add all of the spices. Let simmer, but not thicken too much, about 7-10 minutes. You can continue to add water or stock if it gets too thick Add five more cups of water and your two cups of chana dal. Stir. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat. Simmer for about 25 minutes or until your chana dal or tender enough for your taste. I simmered this for another few minutes with the lid off at the end to cook it down a little bit. I’m eating this over some quinoa I had around. Outstanding!
