3 Quick And Easy Tadkas To Spruce Up Your Boring Dal

Dal aka lentils are an essential component of Indian meals. Usually paired with a dry subzi as an accompaniment or mixed with rice to form the comforting dal chawal combination, dal is a kind of Indian lentil soup that is rich and nutritious. Now, in India, you’ll find a huge variety of dals. From moong to masoor and green gram, there is no dearth of the kind of dals you can cook at home. Another important aspect of most dals is the tadka. Tadka, for the unversed, refers to tempering of the spices to be added to the dal to give it flavour. A simply boiled dal will have no taste as such. It is only after adding some tadka to it, the dal tastes better. 

Different kinds of dal have different types of tadka. For instance, jeera and hing tadka are usually added to arhar, masoor and urad dal. The tangy tamarind tadka is used for making sambhar, the South Indian lentil that is eaten with idlis and dosas. There’s a spicy and tasty dhaba-style tadka which is added to almost every dal in Punjabi dhabas and restaurants. Similarly, to make our lives better and relieve us from the boring dal of every day, home chef Sonia Sarpal has given not one, but three different types of tadka that we can use to amp up our dal ki katori. 

Want to try them? Here are the detailed recipes for all three. 

Dal Tadka- 3 Ways

Source: Slurrpapp/Instagram

Ingredients 

For Dhaba style tadka

• 100 gm butter
• 1 chopped onion and tomato
• 1 cup boiled arhar dal
• 1 tsp ginger and garlic
• 1 tsp cumin, red chilli, turmeric, coriander powder, garam masala
• Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method 

1. For making this tadka, add butter to a pan and let it melt. 
2. To this, add some chopped onions and tomatoes. 
3. Next, add in cumin, turmeric, coriander powder and garam masala. 
4. Throw in ginger and garlic too. 
5. Finally, add some boiled arhar dal to this and a red chilli. 
6. Pour this tadka on the dal and garnish with coriander leaves.

For Achari tadka

• 1 tbsp achar oil ( used mango achar oil)
• 1 chopped onion and tomato
• 1 tsp achar masala
• 1 tsp red chilli, coriander powder, turmeric
• 1 cup boiled dal

Method 

1. Throw in some achaar oil in a pan. 
2. Add some onions and tomatoes to it. 
3. Next, throw in turmeric, red chilli and coriander powder. Also add some boiled dal. 
4. Now take the achaar masala and add it to this. Mix well. 
5. Pour hot over the dal and enjoy.

For Palak dal tadka

• 1 tbsp Ghee
• 1 chopped onion and tomato
• 1 tsp garlic and green chillies
• 1 tsp cumin , red chilli, turmeric
• 1 cup chopped palak
• 1 cup boiled dal

Method 

1. Add ghee to a pan and throw in cumin. 
2. Next, add some tomatoes and onions to it. 
3. Throw in garlic, red chillie, turmeric and green chillies. 
4. Add some freshly-chopped palak (spinach) to it along with boiled dal and mix well. 
5. Transfer it to the top of the dal and combine it before eating.