Dal tadka
Preparation Time
20 minutes
Cooking Time
40 minutes
Difficulty Level
easy
Meal Type
Lunch
Serves 4
Key Ingredients
- Toor (arhar) dal
About This Recipe
Dal tadka is a staple of the highway dhaba: toor dal cooked soft with turmeric, whisked to a thick pour, and finished at the table with a tadka of ghee, cumin, garlic and dry red chilli that is still spitting when it lands. A dal tadka carries its tempering on top, and many dhabas give it twice, once in the pot and once over the bowl, which is the version here.
Toor is the usual dal for it because it cooks to a thick body without turning pasty; the toor dal guide covers soaking, whistles and nutrition. At 21.7 g protein per 100 g raw, the toor supplies most of the 11.1 g of protein in each serving. Some dhabas add a spoon of moong dal or chana dal to the toor for a creamier texture; a tablespoon of moong soaked and cooked with the toor works well.
The texture to aim for is a dal that coats a spoon and still pours, with the tomato dissolved and the onion soft. Ghee gives the dhaba flavour; use cold-pressed groundnut oil for a vegan dal or mustard oil for a sharper Punjabi edge. For a dal with no onion or garlic, leave both out and double the hing, and add a pinch of kasuri methi to the second tadka if you like the restaurant note.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
Dal
- Toor (arhar) dal — 1 cup
- Water (plus 1/2 cup hot water to thin, if needed) — 3 cups
- Turmeric Powder — 1/2 tsp
- Salt — 1 tsp
- Tomatoes, finely chopped — 2 medium
First tadka
- Ghee — 2 tbsp
- Cumin Seeds — 1 tsp
- Onion, finely chopped — 1 medium
- Garlic, finely chopped — 6 cloves
- Ginger, grated — 1 tsp
Second tadka
- Ghee — 1 tbsp
- Cumin Seeds — 1/2 tsp
- Garlic, thinly sliced — 2 cloves
- Dry red chillies — 3 pieces
- Hing (asafoetida) — 1/4 tsp
Garnish
- Fresh coriander leaves, chopped — 2 tbsp
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Serving Suggestions
Serve dal tadka hot, the moment the second tadka goes on, with steamed rice or jeera rice and a wedge of lemon; the classic dhaba plate adds sliced onion, a green chilli, roasted papad and a dry sabzi such as aloo jeera or bhindi. With tandoori roti or phulka it becomes dinner. A spoon of ghee stirred into the rice before the dal is ladled over it is the Punjabi way.
Tips for Cooking Dal tadka
Whisk the cooked dal before it meets the masala; a smooth base is what separates a dhaba dal from a home one. Keep the garlic in the second tadka golden, not brown, and take the pan off the heat before the hing goes in. Never thin the dal with cold water; use hot. Leftover dal thickens in the fridge, so loosen it with hot water and give it a fresh tadka before serving it again.
Chef’s Note
Taste the dal before the second tadka and correct the salt then, because the tadka adds no salt of its own. One serving is a quarter of the pot, made from 50 g of dry dal, and comes to about 273 kcal, 11.1 g protein and 5.1 g fibre; the ghee accounts for most of its 12.2 g fat.
Per serving (approx.): 273 kcal, protein 11 g, carbs 28 g, fat 12 g, fibre 5.1 g. Computed from IFCT 2017 / USDA values for the listed quantities. Measures: 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml.
Happy Cooking
!!
ByCOWBERRY
Jul 07, 2026
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