Khao Recipes: Gujarati Daar Recipe | Gujarati Cooking | Vegetarian Cooking with Punam Vaja

It’s time for a Gujarati classic. Daal is a staple dish in all Indian cuisines, with multiple different lentils and daal recipes. This daar, as we call it in Gujarati, is a little more watery than the more popular style of chana dal or tadka dal. This recipe is the one taught to me by my mum and her mum before that. We hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients:

Lentils:
120 grams tuvar or toor yellow split lentils

For Vaghar or Temper:
1 cup plum tomatoes, pureed
1 1/2 tbsp crushed green chillies and ginger
1/2 tomato, diced
2 green chillies
Handful of Curry leaves
1/2 tsp turmeric
3 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp asafoetida
2 tbsp Jaggery or brown sugar

Additional Seasonings:
1/2 tsp lemon juice
Salt to taste
Chopped coriander for garnish

Method:

1. In a pressure cooker, add your tuvar and wash them well. Put 2 cups of water and cook for 20 mins or until cooked through.
2. I have pureed my tomatoes and added a few curry leaves, so they get crushed with the tomatoes, this is optional but I find adds a lovely flavour when cooked! I was always taught to add the tomatoes to a saucepan with a handle, so it’s easy to handle when doing the temper or vaghar. In a saucepan, add the pureed tomatoes. Add half a tomato, diced.
3. To this, add the crushed ginger and green chillies, half of the curry leaves, turmeric and jaggery or sugar. Lastly, I have added a green chilli, sliced but you can leave this out if you don’t want it to be too spicy.
4. Now on another plate, add the rest of the curry leaves, dried red chillies and one green chilli quartered.
5. Place a large pot on medium high heat. Add the oil. Allow it to become hot, testing it with a few mustard seeds. If they splatter, the oil is ready.
6. Add the mustard seeds, followed by the cumin seeds. Closely follow with the asafoetida. Now give this a few seconds and then add the plate with the curry leaves, green chilli pieces and red chillies. Now, add the saucepan with the pureed tomatoes and spices. Be careful, as the temper will splatter.
7. Give the pan a good stir and then turn the head down low. Allow the tomatoes to cook.
8. The lentils should be done, carefully take them off the heat and depressurise the pressure cooker. Once you can open it, check the lentils are cooked. We like to grind the lentils so they become fully pureed. Using a standing mixer, give the lentils a little blitz.
9. Once you see the oil has come to the top of the tomato mixture, place a large sieve on the pan. Carefully strain the lentils into the tomato vaghar. Now add 3 cups of water and let the daar boil.
10. I have also tasted the daar at this point and added additional spices, salt and the lemon juice.
11. Let the daar come to a boil. This should take around 10 minutes. If you are making a large quantity, allow the daar to boil through fully for 20-30 minutes.
12. Once fully boiled, serve immediately. Enjoy with papad, salad, shaak and rotli, rice and even alone!

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