This basic legume soup is eaten in one form or another with almost every Indian meal.
Serve with rice, chapatis and your favorite vegetable dish.
Ingredients:
1 - cup dal: use either moong dal, toor dal, or yellow split peas
4 - 5 cups water (varies with dal type and desired thickness)
2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp minced ginger
6-8 cloves minced garlic
1 medium chopped onion
2 medium chopped tomatoes
2 tsp Punjabi Garam Masala (optional)
2 tbsp light oil or ghee
2 tbsp Kerala Chaunk
small bunch cilantro or parsley to garnish
salt to taste
Method:
Wash your dal in several changes of water until the water clears, then drain. Mix the dal and water in a heavy saucepan,
cover and carefully bring to a boil. Lower heat, add turmeric and simmer gently for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally
until the dal is soft. Add more water if the soup gets too thick. Whisk the mixture to a smooth consistency. In a separate
frying pan, sauté ginger, garlic, onion and tomatoes in 1 tbsp. of oil. Add to the soup along with Punjabi Garam Masala
and salt. Simmer gently for another 15 minutes. Add the remainder of the oil to the frying pan and bring to a medium heat.
Once the oil is hot, add Kerala Chaunk and stir constantly until the seeds darken
and begin to sputter. For a hotter dal, simply increase the amount of Chaunk. Fold the oil and chaunk into the soup and let
sit for five minutes. Garnish with cilantro or parsley and serve.
Makes 5-6 cups