Kale Tomato Dal
Mar 14, 2017, Updated Jan 02, 2018
Lentils cooked with kale, tomato and spices. This humble Kale Tomato Dal is comfort food at it's best! Vegan and gluten-free.
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Simple and lightly spiced Kale Tomato Dal is a mix of lentils cooked with tomatoes & kale. This simple dal tastes great with plain rice. It’s also vegan and gluten-free.
So Holi is done and I am literally stuffed. Indian festivals always revolve around food and each and every thing made on these days is either sweet or fried. There’s nothing else to eat! For the last 3 days, I have been eating gujiya and mathri like crazy. And then I had kachori for dinner, dahi vada for snacking, I mean talk about “eating unhealthy”!
After so much of fried stuff, I definitely want to eat simple comfort food for the next few days and for an Indian, it probably doesn’t get more comforting than a bowl of dal with boiled rice. Simple and soul satisfying. I have decided that I am going to eat only dal for this week and well I don’t have to make any effort to do that because I am in India and we anyway eat dal everyday so yay to that! The problem though is that in my house, only one type of dal is made on most days. So it can get kind of boring. I like to change things a bit my mixing various lentils and adding different veggies. After all there are so many varieties of dal so why should we be eating the same one every day?
You guys love my spinach dal and I am sure you will also love my Kale Tomato Dal. This one is a mix of chana dal and toor dal (split pigeon peas) and is cooked with tomato, kale and some spices. It’s so simple but like they say sometimes the best recipes are the simplest.
The recipe for this kale tomato dal is pretty straight forward. You pressure cook the dal till they soften up. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, just cook them on a stove top till they are done. It’s obvious that using a pressure cooker will save you lot of time. So once the dal is boiled, you just need to add the tempering and it’s done. I recommend soaking the dals for 15-20 minutes before you pressure cook them.
I added chopped kale to the dal at the very end. If you want to saute it a little, what you can do is, add it after you add the tomatoes. Either way, it will taste good. This dal is a great way to use leftover kale and also a great way to make people eat kale. I know a lot of people, including my husband aren’t very fond of this leafy veggie so this way even they will eat kale.
Method
Pressure cook both the dals with water, turmeric powder and dal till they are soft and cooked. You may also do this on a stove top if you don’t have a pressure cooker. Set aside.
Heat oil in a pan on medium heat. Add cumin seeds and let them crackle.
Add chopped garlic, curry leaves and chopped green chili. Saute till the garlic starts turning light golden in color.
Next add in the chopped tomatoes and salt. Cook for 2-3 minutes, do not over-cook the tomatoes here.
Transfer the cooked dal to the pan and also add the chopped kale. Cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat. You may add more water if you want a thinner consistency of dal at this point.
Remove cover from pan, add lemon juice and sprinkle garam masala on top.
Serve the kale tomato dal hot with plain rice.
* Adjust spice levels to taste. For a spicier dal, add more green chilies and also add some red chili powder/cayenne pepper to the dal.
* You may saute the chopped kale along with the tomato. I added them way at the end. It will turn out well either way.
Kale Tomato Dal
Ingredients
to pressure cook
- 1/2 cup chana dal also known as split garbanzo beans, soaked for 15-20 minutes
- 1/2 cup toor dal also known as split pigeon peas lentil, soaked for 15-20 minutes
- 3 cups water
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
- salt to taste
for tempering
- 2 teaspoons oil I used vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 4 garlic cloves chopped
- 2 green chili chopped
- 6-7 curry leaves
- 2 medium tomatoes chopped
- 1.5 cups chopped kale
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
- garam masala pinch, to sprinkle
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Pressure cook both the dals with water, turmeric powder and dal till they are soft and cooked. I cooked on high heat for 4 whistles and then set the heat to low and cook for additional 10-12 minutes.You may also do this on a stove top if you don't have a pressure cooker. Set aside.
- Heat oil in a pan on medium heat. Add cumin seeds and let them crackle.
- Add chopped garlic, curry leaves and chopped green chili. Saute till the garlic starts turning light golden in color.
- Next add in the chopped tomatoes and salt. Cook for 2-3 minutes, do not over-cook the tomatoes here.
- Transfer the cooked dal to the pan and also add the chopped kale.
- Cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat. You may add more water if you want a thinner consistency of dal at this point.
- Remove cover from pan, add lemon juice and sprinkle garam masala on top.
- Serve the kale tomato dal hot with plain rice.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Kale Tomato Dal
