Sabut Masoor Dal (Spiced Brown Lentils)

Apparently masoor dal is just red lentils. (I didn't know, and I don't know why the Times didn't say that.) Also, high heat won't cook the lentils any faster than low heat, once it's boiling. If it's not in a pressure cooker, water always boils at the same temperature. Also, instead of boiling a lot of water and then removing the excess, you can just use less water. It may require more stirring and attention to prevent clumping and scorching, but lower heat will help with that too.

Don’t forget the kachumbar, a vital part of every Jndian meal. Diced tomatoes and cucumbers, sliced red onions, lemon juice, cilantro, salt, pepper and sprinkling of red chili powder.

This is a delicious red lentil dish. Instead of the rather anemic tomatoes available right now I used a can of Mutti crushed polpa and, thinking 1/2 tsp each of garlic and ginger rather stingy, I went for a heaping tsp of each. No Thai chiles to be found so used two whopping serranos. Oh, grating the onion is the way to go. I learned from Turkish cooks and grating the onion adds a wonderful texture and flavor to lentils. Tomato/cuke/cilantro/onion salad on side!!!

Brown lentils are red inside. When the "brown" lentils are hulled & split they are "red" lentils. "Sabut" means whole or unhulled so "sabut masoor dal" is a dal made with whole brown lentils.

A pressure-cooker or instant-pot will cut down the cooking time by about10-15 minutes. 5-7 minutes of pressure is usually enough.

If possible, buy organic daal. Most Indian Stores now carry one or two organic brands. My husband is from a farming Punjabi family and he was shocked by the enormous chemical use last time he visited his village.

Why not just use less water in the first place? You're throwing away water-soluble nutrients for no apparent reason.

Sabut masoor dal are whole brown lentils. Here is a reference for Indian dal names in English: https://www.veganricha.com/indian-dals-names/. Instead of 7 cups of water use 2 or 2.5 cups. To cook them fast use a pressure cooker as high heat changes nothing. Also, this dish needs about double the spices and only 1 Thai chile. There are much better recipes online, most of them by Indian cooks.

I have read that masoor dal from India should be avoided because of glyphosate. Perhaps other red lentils are ok.

Ver good dish! I used what I had on hand … brown lentils. The seasonings sounded timid to me so I doubled all the dry spices, ginger & garlic. Made kambuchar as recommended below. Will definitely do again.

Next time ask for brown lentils, or whole masoor, or masoor sabut or masoor, whole masoor as can be seen in the picture,has its coating[fibre!}. Red lentils either split or football lentils, are not the same as the dal in the recipe, and will also taste different. Most of the branded masoor in the Indian stores, is from Canada, this is with reference to the glyphosate comment

From Maia Kamal’s South Indian recipes (all delicious) I learned to toast 1/4 cup of unsweetened fine shredded coconut on the stovetop before using the same pan to fry the tadka, then set it aside and add it to the dal at the end of cooking. Great addition. I also cook the tomatoes in with the dal but I look forward to trying it this way.

I used my pressure cooker, followed the directions exactly, and had a lovely dish in half the time, just perfect after work (I cooked the rice in my Zojirushi rice maker). I love the different types of dal, and this one will definitely join my rotation. One time-saving trick I have is to make a double amount of rice, and freeze it in portion sizes as soon as it cools down. I microwave the rice straight from the freezer and it is just like freshly made - it keeps frozen about 30 days.

A dollop of ghee or butter on each serving, please.

Koko below says that Masoor Dahl is just RED Lentils, a popular type that's easily available. You see them easily too as they have a pleasant light orange color; they deserve their own color category perhaps (I used to paint watercolor and oil pastels). For decades they were my favorite lentils bc they cook in 20 minutes or so and have a very pleasant delicate taste. For best taste and speed it's better to ADD water to lentils or beans rather than remove it, with the nutrients.