Instant Pot Dal Tadka
Dal tadka is a flavorful dal with split yellow pigeons peas.
Servings 2
Calories
Ingredients
- ¼ cup Toor/Tuvar/Arhar Dal/Dry Pigeon Peas
- 2-3 teaspoon Oil
- 2 - 3 small Green Chilies
- 1 teaspoon chopped Ginger
- 1 teaspoon chopped Garlic or 2 fat Garlic Cloves
- ½ medium sized or ⅓ cup sliced Onion
- ½ large or ⅓ - ½ cup chopped Tomato
- Turmeric Powder
- ¾ teaspoon Salt
Tempering
- 2 teaspoon Ghee or Oil or combination of both
- ¼ teaspoon Cumin
- 2 fat Garlic Cloves or 1 teaspoon of chopped Garlic Cloves
- ½ - ¾ Kasoori Methi
- Pinch of Hing ~ Asafoetida
- Pinch of Chili Powder, optional
- Cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Wash dal and soak for 10 minutes or until ready to use.
- Plug Instant Pot and set it to saute mode.
- When the inner vessel is hot, add oil and saute green chilies, ginger and garlic for few seconds.
- Throw in onions and continue to saute for a minute or two until onions are soft.
- Add tomatoes, salt, turmeric and continue sauteing until tomatoes are soft and mushy.
- Cover the inner pot to speed up cooking of tomatoes. This step is optional
- Discard water from the dal, add to Instant Pot and continue to saute for a minute or two until dal is roasted.
- Hit cancel button, add ¾ cup of water and give a good stir.
- At this point, if one wants to cook other items along with dal, insert the containers for pot in pot cooking.
- Close Instant Pot and press Manual/Pressure Cook. Adjust the time to 5 minutes, make sure the pressure is set to high and vent sealed.
- Basically it is 5 minutes in manual setting and quick release after 5 minutes.
- I cooked eggs along with dal hence quick release. Else do natural pressure release.
- Open instant pot, remove vessels if you did pip.
- Press saute mode, stir dal, add about ¾ cup of water, salt and bring to a boil.
- When desired consistency is reached, hit cancel button. Mind you, dal thickens as it cools.
- Meantime, on stove top, do a tempering by heating oil/ghee mentioned in tadka ingredient list.
- When oil is hot, add cumin and let the seeds change color.
- Add chopped garlic, hing and let garlic roast.
- Turn off the flame, add kasuri methi, turmeric and chili powder if using.
- Pour the tadka over dal, add cilantro, cover and let sit for at least 5 minutes until flavors infuse into dal.
- Serve dal with roti, paratha or rice.
Notes
- I use vine ripe tomatoes but any variety will work
- 5 minutes manual setting - Contents in the Instant pot will cook for 5 minutes on high pressure once the pressure is built.
- It will take about 8 minutes for the pressure to build up.