Chana Dal Recipe
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Chana dal had a special place in my heart growing up, mainly because it wasn’t made every day in my house unlike the humble moong dal or the simple toor dal. My mom made chana dal once every few months when we got super bored of eating the same dal, so it always felt special. Her version had a simple masala base of onions and tomatoes finished with a tadka of ghee with garlic and cumin seeds.
My version of chana dal has more spices, and a deeper flavor. The smoky touch at the end takes it to the next level and it pairs beautifully with warm rotis or jeera rice.
This recipe has a special place in my heart and it’s truly one of my favorite dal recipes ever. There’s so much flavor in this dal that if anyone says that dals are boring, I will ask them to give this recipe a try, it might change their opinion on dal!
I also have an instant pot chana dal recipe on the blog, that’s much easier and one pot so if you are looking for a super simple recipe, check that out. For this recipe, I use a few extra spices and steps and boil the dal first and then make the masala in a separate pan and then mix the two and then finish it with a second tadka. This recipe is also vegan and gluten-free.
To Soak the Dal or Not?
I never soak my dal and I have never had a problem cooking it. However, some people experience the dal remaining uncooked if they don’t soak it- most of the time, it has to do with the dal being too old. If you are on the fence, I would recommend soaking it for 2 to 3 hours and if you are in a rush, soak it hot water for 45 minutes before you pressure cook it.
Manali’s Tips for a Flavor-Packed Dal!
- Use fresh ingredients– this is important since that’s how dal is traditionally made in India. I never ever saw canned tomatoes or chilies being used in my house and we ate dal every day. So, use fresh tomatoes, fresh ginger-garlic, chilies. Pounding the fresh ginger-garlic using a mortar and pestle adds lot of flavors.
- Use good quality spices– even though we don’t add a ton of spices to this dal, still it’s important to use good quality spices here. They add to the flavor. The kashmiri red chili powder gives the dal that beautiful color without adding much heat to it.
- Add kasuri methi– dried fenugreek leaves give a wonderful aroma to the dal, so do not skip on them especially in this chana dal recipe.
- Use ghee for extra flavor– again not essential but adds to flavor. For this recipe, I have not used ghee, and it was still fantastic. But adding ghee is an ingredients that you can use for more flavor.
- Smoke the dal– I love smoking my dals with dhungar method. The smoky flavors elevate the flavors of the dal and make it more dhaba-style/restaurant-style.
Ingredients
Chana Dal: this recipe uses 100% chana dal and no other lentils. If you think only chana dal can be too heavy for your stomach, you can replace 25% of it with a lighter alternative like toor or moong dal.
Garlic-Ginger-Chili: I love using fresh ginger and garlic here which I crush using a mortar and pestle and then use in the recipe. The freshly pounded ginger and garlic give so much flavor to this dal.
Spices: I have used a bunch of spices in this recipe though not in large amount. The quantity of the spices is less since this is a dal and not a curry and we don’t want it to be totally overpowered with spices.
The spices that I used here are coriander, garam masala, kashmiri red chili powder (mainly for color) and kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves).
Please keep in mind that kashmiri red chili powder used here is not hot, if you want the dal to be spicier, you can replace half of it with regular chili powder.
Let’s Make Chana Dal
- Pressure cook the chana dal
I like using my Instant Pot to cook the chana dal, if you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can also cook the dal using a stove-top pressure cooker (8 to 10 whistles on high heat). Once cooked, the dal should be soft, and you should be able to mash it easily using your fingers (just like we cook the urad dal for dal makhani).
- Sauté the whole spices with onions
Whole spices like cumin seeds, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon make this dal very fragrant and I love using them in my recipe. Add the chopped onions once you can smell the aroma of the spices and cook until the onions are soft and translucent.
- Use fresh ginger-garlic for maximum flavor
Freshly pounded ginger garlic (using a mortar pestle) makes a big difference to the final taste of dal. Cook until the raw smell of ginger and garlic goes away and then add the tomatoes.
- Stir in the dry spices and cilantro
Once the masala “base is cooked”, then add the dry spices, I also like adding chopped cilantro along with spices. Cook for a little bit before adding the cooked chana dal.
- Let the dal simmer while you prepare the tadka
After mixing the dal with the masala, simmer the dal on low for 5 to 6 minutes, and meanwhile prepare a tadka with ghee, garlic and dried red chilies.
- Finish by giving dal a smoky flavor
After adding the tadka, I like doing the additional step of giving dal a smoky flavor by using dhungar method. Place a piece of hot charcoal (make sure it’s not the one that self-ignites) in a bowl placed inside the dal. Pour few drops of ghee on hot charcoal and cover the lid and let it sit for 5 minutes. The dal absorbs the smoky flavor. Serve hot with rotis and a side of homemade aloo gobi or bhindi masala (my favorite combination)!
But I Don’t Have a Pressure Cooker?
No problem! You can easily make this on stovetop too. I would suggest soaking the dal overnight or for 6 hours minimum. Then add it to a pot with water, turmeric, and salt and bring it to boil. Then turn heat to medium, cover and cook for around 20-25 minutes, or until the dal is soft and cooked. Keep removing the white foam that forms on top of the dal as it cooks, with a spoon. Keep adding more water as needed. If you don’t soak it, the cooking time will be much longer.
Chana Dal Recipe (Step by Step)!
Ingredients
- 1 cup chana dal 205 grams
- 3 cups water 24 oz , divided, more or less as needed
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 & ¼ teaspoons salt divided, or to taste
- 6 large garlic cloves divided, 4 whole and 2 chopped
- 1 & ½ inch ginger
- 1 green chili or use more for extra heat
- 2 tablespoons +2 teaspoons oil divided, 30 ml + 10 ml , I used avocado oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 3 whole cloves
- 2 green cardamom
- 1 & ½ inch cinnamon stick
- 1 medium red onion 160 grams , chopped
- 2 medium tomatoes 285 grams , chopped
- ½ teaspoon coriander powder
- ¼ teaspoon garam masala
- ½ teaspoon kashmiri red chili powder this is for color and is not hot
- 1 teaspoon kasuri methi crushed, dried fenugreek leaves
- 2 tablespoons cilantro chopped
- 1 whole dried red chili
- piece of charcoal for dhungar method, optional
Instructions
- Rinse 1 cup chana dal (205 grams) and then add it to a pressure cooker along with 2 & ½ cups water (20 oz), ½ teaspoon turmeric and ¾ teaspoon salt.Pressure cook the dal until it's cooked and soft. On regular stove-top pressure cooker, it would take 8-10 whistles on high flame. If using an electric pressure cooker like an Instant Pot, cook on high pressure for 13 minutes. In both cases, let the pressure release naturally.
- Meanwhile, crush 4 large garlic cloves, 1 & ½ -inch ginger and 1 green chili in a mortar pestle and set it aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy bottom pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the whole spices- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 3 cloves, 2 green cardamom and 1 & ½ -inch cinnamon stick. Sauté for a few seconds until the spices are fragrant.
- Then add 1 medium onion (chopped) and cook for around 3 to 4 minutes until they are soft and start to change color. Now, add the freshly pounded garlic-ginger-green chili and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until the raw smell goes away.
- Then add 2 medium tomatoes (chopped), stir and cook for 7to 8 minutes until they are very soft and completely cooked. Also add ½ teaspoon salt along with the tomatoes.
- Then add the dry spices- ½ teaspoon coriander powder, ¼ teaspoon garam masala, ½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder and 1 teaspoon kasuri methi. Also add 2 tablespoons cilantro (chopped). If you want to make the dal spicier, you can replace half of the Kashmiri red chili powder with regular chili powder which is hotter. Stir and cook the spices for 30 seconds.
- Now, add the boiled chana dal to the pan along with ½ to ¾ cup water ( 4 to 6 oz), depending on the consistency you prefer. Stir and let the dal simmer for 5 to 6 minutes on medium-low heat.
- For the tadka, heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil (or you can use ghee) in a small pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add remaining 2 garlic cloves (chopped) and 1 dried red chili (break it before adding it to the dal for extra heat) and cook for one minute until the garlic starts changing color. Transfer tadka to the simmering chana dal and stir. You can serve the dal at this point or give it a smoky flavor.
- This step is optional. For the dhungar method, place a steel bowl on top of the dal. Then using tongs heat a piece of charcoal over direct heat until its red hot. Place the hot charcoal in that steel bowl on top of the dal using a pair of tongs .Pour oil or ghee on top of charcoal. You will immediately see fumes coming out of charcoal. Immediately close the pan with a lid. Let it remain like this for 3-5 minutes. Then remove the lid and remove the bowl from dal. The longer you keep the lid closed, the smokier dal will get. Enjoy hot with roti or rice.
Notes
- This recipe uses oil so it’s vegan. But you can use ghee here, it will add flavor and make it taste more restaurant-style.
- Use regular chili powder and more green chilies for a spicier dal.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This was amazing!! What a great recipe and your IP cooking time was spot on!! This is going to be on my regular rotation!!
glad to hear!
This works really well. I use a little less tomato and onion though, chopped fine, and the idea to add a black cardamom to the pressure cooker with the chana also worked well.
Overcooked the dal a little, but even as mush it was good. On my regular rotation.
made it again; this is in my regular rotation now. Thank you very much
I love your recipes. Tried this chana dal recipe and OMG the best Chana dal I’ve eaten in my life. Thank you for sharing your recipes.
Thanks for trying my recipes Aditi, I am so glad you enjoy them! 🙂
Great recipe…………….I used green tomato, yellow mustard seeds, and a Black Cardamon Pod for smokiness
Wow this was excellent!! Will definitely be making this over and over 😍
thanks Dani!
We tried this today and it was amazing! Very authentic and tasted just like from the restaurant. Thank you
Thanks Krishna, it’s one of my favorite dals! Glad you enjoyed it!
Made it yesterday for dinner, it was super delicious 🤤 Thankyou Manali your every recipe is bang on
Thanks for trying!
Chana Dal one of the best indian recipes I have found. Everyone who tries it loves it!
thanks for trying!
You is a very good cook.Thank you.
Hi!
I found your Chana Dal recipe having a five star rating and decided to try it.
It was easy to make (your step by step instructions were very clear and easy to follow) and the end result was delicious. I will have to try your other recipes! Thank you for sharing your recipe!!!
thank you for trying!
thankyou, I have been searching for the perfect Chana Dhal as the side/veggie option for curry nights at home and your recipe using my pressure cooker (old style) has worked so well even the meat eaters can not resist.
thanks for the feedback 🙂
Could you please explain what the difference is between Chana Dal and Chana Masala. I see you have a recipe for both of them on your site. Or more generally: what’s the diffrenece between XXX Dal and XXX Masala?
Love your recipes btw.
Hi Nanna. Chana dal and Chana Masala are made with different “key” ingredient. The chana masala is made with white chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and chana dal is made with split chickpeas which is a lentil. So it’s beans v/s lentil when it comes to chana masala v/s chana dal.
Dal refers to any lentil in India. Dal is the ingredient and also the dish so it can me confusing 🙂 but we refer to both the lentil and also the dish as “dal”. Dal can be made with various lentils like chana dal, toor dal, masoor dal and so on. Masala just means spices in Hindi. Hope this helps.
Thank you for your reply. To me, it seems like the opposite; chana dal and chana masala is made from the same key ingredient: chickpeas. And the only difference is split vs whole chickpeas. Am I missing something here?
Sorry, these are details, but I’m curious. 🙂
No, you are not missing anything. You are correct. But in broad term we refer whole chickpeas as a bean and split as a lentil. Chana masala/chole is made with garbanzo beans/whole raw chickpeas. And chana dal is made from split chickpeas which is known as chana dal. The word “chana” is used for chickpeas in a broad way, like kala chana which means black chickpeas is also a chickpea although different than the white one but we will still call it chana (https://www.cookwithmanali.com/kala-chana-chaat/ ). When chickpea is used as split chickpea as in chana dal, we call it a dal/lentil.
I made the Chana dal and the Jeera rice. It was delicious and I’m so proud to make authentic Indian cuisine. Wish I could add pictures.
you can always share it on social media and tag me or email me. Glad you enjoyed the recipes!
Hi Manali,
Thank you so much for your wonderful recipes! Everything I have ever made from you has been amazing 🙂
Thank you for following along! 🙂
Hi Manali,
The charcoal available in US has oil in it which might not be good to use it for smoky flavors, do you know if we have charcoal which does not have any oils/chemicals in it?
Thanks
Seema
you have to get the one which is not self ignited
Made with spinach and potatoes.was really nice.
I had a brain malfunction and accidentally made this with chickpeas instead of chana dal. Still delicious! But very watery haha
haha, glad you still liked it!
Fantastic! Couldn’t find green cardamom or kashmir at the grocery store, so used 1/2 tsp of ground cardamom and cayenne pepper instead of kashmiri. Also used Ghee instead of oil. So good, thank you.
Great recipe
Hi Manali,
Please could you advise. When changing the channel daal amount on the 1x, 2x and 3x, the channa daal amount remains the same at 205grams but everything else changes. This doesn’t seem correct.
Hi Saleha, this is how the recipe plugin is unfortunately and it can’t be fixed. Please follow the measurements on the left side like 1 cup changes to 3 cups and so on. The gram measurements I just write because people like having measurements in weight also but measurements mentioned on the right hand side won’t change with 1x, 2 x since I write them outside the measuring box in another column. I had removed this feature for sometime because of this very reason as it causes confusion but then so many of the readers asked me to bring it back.
Check the left side only, chana dal does change to 2 cups, 3 cups , water to 6 cups, 9 cups and so on.
This is the best dal I’ve ever made. Thank you for a winning recipe!
The smoking method takes the dish to another level…yummy..my kids love it..
I don’t have a pressure cooker and have seen your instructions for cooking on a stove top, but you don’t mention how much water to cook the chana dal in?
I assume this is important as the dal and and cooking water is added to the tomato masala in the last stages
honestly I have never cooked dals on stove-top because I am an Indian and we just don’t cook dals without pressure cooker. I would start with 2-3 cups water and cook. If the water is evaporating too quickly before the dal is cooked, I will add more and go from there. You can always adjust the final consistency of dal according to your preference.
I’m an Indian too. My British husband doesn’t like pressure cookers. So I’ve started cooking daals in slow cookers. Just done channa daal. I used the twice as much water as dal proportions. It’s taken 18 hours on high setting. 🙄🙄 (I know!!) but it’s done.
Hi Manali,
Your recipe looks delicious and I’d love to cook this but I don’t have a pressure cooker, can you advise an alternative way to cook the lentils.
Thankyou.
Emma
soak the chana dal for 4-5 hours, then add it to a pot with water. cook with salt and turmeric until the dal is completely cooked, will take around 30 minutes. then make the recipe as it is.
Hi Manali,
yes its very nice recipe. I tried this with organic chana dal. Tastes very natural and yummy yummy .
Hi Manali,
I see this smoking method in more than one recipes here and really would like to give it a try. What kind of charcoal is this or where do you get these charcoal normally? I only see huge bags for bbq in store.
Thanks!
yes those huge bags are what you need, just make sure the charcoal isn’t the self ignited one
Gracias Manali!!!!! una belleza de receta, perfectamente explicada y riquísima, la hice adaptándola al Caribbean y quedó exquisita 😋
I really adore your recipes. I have a question about the tadka though: I’m some other recipes the tadka contains seeds etc. I was wondering if it does not disturb when chomp on them when the tadka is transferred to the Chana Dal or other Dal recipes?
you mean whole spices? You can remove them before serving. the seeds like cumin seeds, mustard seeds etc. are fine and should be eaten.
Yes thank you so much for replying. Your dishes are really incredible!
Like everybody else, I loved loved loved this dish! I left out the spices I didn’t have and still wonderful. Next time I make it I will try doing the complete recipe. Thanks for sharing such tasty dishes!
glad to know Ana!
I’ve never made this before but it was super easy and unbeatably tasty
glad to hear!
It leaves a lot of left over water is that how it’s supposed to be? like there’s nothing to make it thick, it’s thin with the water.
There are step by step pictures which show how it’s supposed to look like. The dal thickens a lot once it cools down but it should never be thin like water to begin with (nothing wrong in thin dal though but I don’t make chana dal super thin). I am not sure why it was that thin? You can always add even less water and try again.
If you use the dhungar method, can you reuse the same piece of charcoal from a previous time?
I do not use,
This was my first time cooking Indian food. This is soooo full of flavor. I will make it again for sure. Thank you for sharing the recipe. Can’t wait to eat the left over, tomorrow 😊
awesome!
Very easy and delicious. I prepare it every 15 days. Thank you for sharing this receipt.
you are welcome!
hi! i dont have a pressure cooker that whistles persay but does make a lot of noise. how do i know what 8-10 whistles = time wise? is it the same time as used on the instant pot? i cannot find this conversion on the internet.
cook for probably 20 minutes
Ive just made this and its the best one yet absolutely loved it. And will be making it again. Thankyou
I am so glad to know 🙂
This recipe was delicious. I added about a 1/4 cup of moong dal too which made it very creamy. My husband even said it was better than his mom’s which is high praise. (Shhh…don’t tell her!)
haha not telling!
Hi can I make this on the stove top? What’s the steps?
soak dal for 2 hours, then cook on stove-top until the dal is soft and cooked. All steps remain same.
Tasty! Ate for three days in a row (only eating for one). In some dal recipes do you not crush the lentils? Or is it personal preference? Thanks!
we never crush the lentils, you probably mean over-boiling them. Chana dal as a lentil is bigger in size compared to say toor dal or red lentils or moong dal. So it never really dissolves like the other lentils would.
Amazing, I put the tomatoes in after the dry spices, but otherwise all followed to the letter, really great recipe
Tried this recipe, without additional tadka at the end. Loved it!!
Tried this last night, came out very well! Thanks
Thumbs up for this recipe, tried it out last night. Came out well.
glad to know!
Lucky to be alive today! We had this yesterday and it was so good we almost died!
Followed the recipe step by step, but added two good handful of diced carrots as I realized the amount would not be enough for the three of us – 2 rather small ladies and one average man. And I had generously portioned all ingredients already. We had sides as well and a good amount of basmati rice, yet, we finished it all. Hence, I believe, the recipe is for two servings rather than four.
I tried the dhungar method but probably was too anxious not to overdo it, so the effect was only minimal. More next time, and many next times there will be!
Excellent. I shall love to copy it. Thanks a lot.
Does the recipe require a cinnamon stick & green cardamom? It looks like it from one of the pictures but it’s not listed in the recipe.
Thanks! I love all of your recipes!
it does and it is listed under ingredients- I can see , please have a look again
“1 teaspoon cumin seeds
3 whole cloves
2 green cardamom
1.5 inch cinnamon stick”
Manali in the Chana dal receipe, you haven’t mentioned the amount of garam masala spices to be put. Please include dis detail too. Thanks. Lv your receipes. M from india
sorry added 🙂
Though I used to make Chanadal differently, without onion and garlic, but seems it might be tasty with onion and garlic. Ill try now this way. Thanks.