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This Easy Instant Pot Recipe for Dal Makhani Puts the Vitamix 8-oz and 20-oz to Work!
You know Seth Godin right? Daily blogger, marketing guy, etc.
Well he has a hidden section on his website for recipes. And this recipe, his “the King of Dal,” sold me on the following:
- Costs nine dollars
- Makes 15 servings
- Takes 30 minutes to make
It’s basically lentil stew for the Instant Pot. If you don’t have one, it’ll pay for itself in a week. (We use the medium one.)
We loved that this dal is a complete protein. And of course it’s super tasty — even our picky-eating kid loved it!
But then fun part is that it uses both cups from the cup-bowl kit.
NOTE: It looks like a lot of ingredients and a lot of steps. But this recipe is very easy and hard to mess up.
Recipe
Easy Dal
Easy recipe for dal makhani using two Vitamix containers and an Instant Pot
Lentils,Ingredients:
- LENTILS
- Masoor (red) lentils - 2 cups
- GARAM MASALA (spice blend)
- black mustard seeds - 1 Tablespoon
- coriander seeds - 1 Tablespoon
- cumin seeds - 1 Tablespoon
- black peppercorns - 1 teaspoon
- black cardomon - 3 pods
- cinnamon stick - 1-inch piece
- turmeric - a pinch
- dried chili peppers - 0 or 1 or 2 or 4
- GARLIC GINGER WATER
- garlic cloves - 6, peeled
- fresh ginger - 2-inch piece
- water - 8 ounces (approximately)
- OTHER
- butter - 2 Tablespoons (we used Earth Balance, though traditional butter or coconut butter works)
- tomato puree - 28-ounce can
- water - 28 ounces
- OPTIONAL
- yellow onion - 1, diced
- coconut cream - 1/2 cup, full fat
Instructions:
PREP:
- Soak lentils in water for two hours.
- Add “garam” ingredients to blender and blend on high for 15 seconds. (We used the 8-oz cup.)
- Blend “garlic/ginger water” ingredients on high for 15 seconds. (We used the 20-oz cup.)
SAUTEE (in the Instant Pot):
- Press “Sautee” button on Instant Pot.
- Add butter
- Add “garam masala” ingredients to butter. (It’s going to sizzle!)
- Optional: Add diced yellow onion and cook until onions are translucent
- Mix for one minute
- Add “ginger/garlic water”
- Add 28-oz can of tomato puree
- Add one 28-oz can’s worth of water (28 ounces)
- Add drained lentils
- Optional: Add coconut cream
- Mix it all gently
COOK
- Press “Sautee” button to turn it off
- Press “Beans” button to turn it on
- Press down arrow to adjust time to 21 minutes.
- Lock the Instant Pot and it should just get started. (It will say “ON” while preheating and then the timer will appear when it’s pressurized and cooking.)
SERVE
- Serve hot over rice.
- Add salt and pepper and cilantro and crushed red pepper to taste.
- We made this vegan naan and recommend if you have the time.
Useful tips for Easy Dal
We waited years before making this because we were afraid to go to an Indian grocery store to get the garam masala ingredients. Don’t do that. Go — it’s easy and worth it.
This turned out excellent, thanks so much for sharing! As was recommended by Lenny, I did add a couple teaspoons of smoked salt to the mixture before pressure cooking. Served over brown rice and seasoned with Uncle Steveās Shake. Fabulous!
I also wanted to mention that I used Chana Dal (not Masoor red lentils specifically). When you go to the Indian grocery store (Pan-Asian, in my case), there are SO many lentil/Dal variationsā¦
I soaked the Dal for 5 hours, and for those that have a Ninja Foodi instead of an Instant Pot, pressure cooking for 21 minutes on HI did perfectly fine (thereās no Bean setting on the Foodi).
Wednesday nights are Dada-makes-dinner night. And instead of making ol’ faithful “Dada Pasta” (spaghetti with broccoli and garlic), I made this recipe.
It was so, so good.
Except there was one problem: I made it way too spicy for everyone but me, even after mixing in some homemade cashew cream.
Here’s me having to eat everyone’s. Doh! š¤¦āāļø https://mailchi.mp/lifeisnoyoke/nl-2021-11-23v2-1624554
I’ve since adjusted the recommended quantity of chili peppers from 2-6 to 0-3. And lesson learned: Less heat = more happy. You can always make it spicier.