Whole Unhulled Urad and Rajma Dal | Urad Lentils and Kidney Beans Dal

It has been a while since I posted an Urad recipe. Urad is one of my favourite lentils, comforting and nourishing, and used a lot in the Punjab region. It is easy to cook with, especially if you know and respect its properties.

This dish is a cousin of Dal Makhani, using yoghurt instead of butter and cream, and whole urad rather than split urad dal.

And what a stunner! This is a slow cooked dish – taking around 5 hours – but they are effortless hours. No need to do more than the odd stir or two.

Are you looking for Urad recipes? You might like to try Urad and Red Rice Kitchari, Urad Dal Garlic Rice, and Urad Tamatar Dal.

We also have Rajma (kidney bean) recipes – try Rajma Sundal, Feijoada, and Capsicums Stuffed with Kidney Beans and Feta.

Or perhaps you are looking for Dal Makhani style dishes. Try our very popular Dal Makhani Restaurant Style, Indian Bazaar Dal Makhani, and Amritsari Dal.

Punjabi recipes are always packed with flavour. Try Baingan ka Bharta, Quince Aachar, and Tomato Bharta.

Alternatively, explore all of our Dal Makhani and similar recipes. Or browse Punjabi recipes. We have a range of different Urad recipes and Rajma (Kidney Bean) recipes. You might also like to check out the Madhur Jaffrey recipes that we love. Oh and our Dal recipes are here. All of our Indian recipes are here. Or take some time to browse our Mid Autumn dishes.

Urad and Red Rice Kitchari | Khichuri

Rediscovering a wonderful ceramic oven dish with lid, it was put to use cooking another kitchari, this time made with red rice. Most Indian and some Asian groceries will stock red rice. Red rice is a very healthy rice – I use Rosa Matta rice from Kerala, but there are several different varieties.

This kitchari originates from Korea, but I have made it more Indian than Korean. It is not a traditional Indian kitchari, but is very tasty, and can be cooked on the stove top, in the oven or in a slow cooker.

Are you looking for Kitchari recipes? Browse them here. Have a look at our rice recipes here and here also. Explore the Urad recipes here and here. And read about Rosa Matta Rice as well.

Urad Lentil Sprouts in a Sesame Coconut Yoghurt Sauce | Sabut Urad Usal

This is a dish from Maharashtra in India. Whole urad or muth beans and sprouts are the traditional favorites, but you can also use sprouted chick peas, aduki or mung beans in this dish. Sprouted beans are bursting with nutrition because they are a living, growing food. When left raw, their flavor may be strange to the newcomer. In this dish, however, flavor is obtained without sacrificing the nutritive value of the sprouts.

Check out all of the Urad recipes here and here. Perhaps you are also looking for sprouts recipes. Browse Yamuna Devi’s recipes. OR be inspired by our Autumn dishes here and here. You can also browse our Indian Essentials.

Amritsari Dal from the Punjab

If I wasn’t such a fan of South Indian food, culture, arts, music, temples, rituals and everything else that is predominately from Tamil Nadu, I might have fallen in love with the Punjab. Punjabi food is wholesome and full of rustic flavour. The custom of cooking in community ovens or tandoors can still be found in rural areas even today. The cuisine is characterised by a profusion of dairy products in the form of malai (cream), paneer and dahi (yoghurt). And also the dals are a speciality of Punjabi cuisine, made of whole pulses like black gram (urad), green gram (mung) and Bengal gram (channa).  They are cooked in covered earthen pots on a slow fire clay oven fueled with dung-cakes, often simmered for hours till they turn creamy, and then flavoured with spices and rounded off with cream and butter for that rich finish. The food is simply delicious. Thanks to Sanjeev Kapoor for part of this information.

Urad lentils are favourites in the Punjabi cuisine, and take so well to the long slow cooking. This dish is soothing and gentle, despite the large amounts of garlic and ginger. Their assertiveness is overcome by the long slow cooking time. The dish is generally quite mild in its spiciness.

You might like to explore our Urad Lentil recipes here and here, especially all of the Dal Makhani-style dishes. Browse the Punjabi recipes. Or check out our Slow Cooking dishes.

Indian Bazaar Dal Makhani | Home Style Dal Makhani

The story of this Dal Makhani goes like this:

Some time ago in Bangalore, India, I had a Dal Makhani to die for. It was just a hotel room service meal ordered at a very busy at the time, yet it made me sink back into my couch with a wonderful smile on my face – as if I had transitioned and gone to Dal Heaven.

I rang through to the kitchen and asked for the recipe. Oh what hilarity that caused in the kitchen – much laughter and giggles, and simply hours later, I received a typed up recipe from the chef at the Oberoi in Bangalore. It is the most wondrous dish, full of butter and cream and takes some time, so a dish for special occasions.

Urad Dal with Tomato, Coconut and Coriander

We love urad lentils, particularly Urad Dal cooked with tomatoes, so when we found Ottolenghi’s recipe for Urad Dal with Coconut and Coriander in his book Plenty More, it sparked interest. He talks about his inspiration, Aasmah Mir from cookingcurries.com and the Pakistani family recipes on that site.

His recipe treats some ingredients a little differently than my usual South Indian way, so I have modified the recipe to accommodate that.

Are you looking for similar Dal recipes? Try Simple Monk’s Dal, Urad Dal Sundal, Urad Dal Garlic Rice, and Urad Dal with tomatoes.

Explore Urad recipes and our collection of Ottolenghi’s recipes. Or browse our collection of Late Autumn dishes.

This time previous years we were making: Crispy Garlic and Sage, Baked Apricots with Honey and Orange, A Lovely Pumpkin Soup, A Spicy Cucumber Salad with Poppy Seeds, and Japanese Baked Eggplant with Miso and Sesame.

Urad Dal Sundal | Karuppu Ulundu Sundal | Black Gram Sundal | Stir Fried Black Lentils with Coconut

This season there will be 9 Sundals, one for each day of Navarathri. 7 are made already.

Sundals are very easy to make once your base ingredient – usually a lentil or pulse – is cooked. They are often called “salads”, and in an Indian context, that is true as they are much lighter dishes than many curries. But in a Western context they are better described as lentils and pulses quickly stirfried with spices – black mustard seeds, asafoetida, ginger, red and green chillies. I love these dishes.

Today it is an Urad Sundal. You can use whole or split Urad.

You might also like to try Adzuki Bean Sundal, Du Puy Sundal, Mung Dal Sundal, and White Pea Sundal. Or you can make a sundal with Chickpeas or some Rajma (Kidney Beans) , equally as delicious. Explore all of the Sundal Recipes, they are all quick and gorgeous.

Paruthithurai Vadai | Thattai Vadai | Crunchy Crackers | A Snack from Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Vada is a common term for many different types of savoury fritter-type snacks from South India. It seems that Vada was popular among ancient Tamils in South India during 100 BCE-300 CE, so they have a long history.

Vada can vary in shape and size, but are usually either doughnut- or disc-shaped between 5 and 8 cm across. They are made from urad gram or chickpeas.

This Vada recipe comes from the Tamil cuisine of Jaffna in Sri Lanka. It is made with steamed wheat flour. You can buy this from your Indian Grocery, but you can also make your own.

Try other Vadai – Maddur Vadai, Falafel, and Coriander Vada.

You might also like to try Dhal Puttu, Kolache Poha, Mochai Kottai.

Browse all of the Indian Snacks. Or explore our Indian recipes here and here. Be inspired by our Summer recipes can be found here and here.

Ma Ki Dal | Slow Braised Lentils

Urad dal is a lentil that suits long slow cooking and a smoky flavour. With a little work, a covered BBQ will cope with cooking a dish like Slow Braised Lentils slowly for several hours.

This recipe will work in an oven too, no worries. But the joys of cooking outside are enormous so on sunny days, take your lentils outside.

You might also like to try the other Mah ki Dal recipes and some  Dal Makhani recipes.

Other Urad Dal recipes include Urad and Red Rice Kitchari, Amritsari Dal, and Urad Dal with Tomatoes.

Try other Dals as well – Masoor Dal with Green Chillies, ISKON Mung Dal, and Simple Indian Dal Soup.

Browse all of our Dal recipes and all of our dishes using Urad Dal. Our Indian recipes are here. Or find inspiration in our Late Spring recipes.

Mah di Dal | Kaali Dal | Creamy Black Lentils

Most Indian lentils come in four ways:

• Skinned, whole
• Skinned, halved
• Unhulled, whole
• Unhulled, halved

and amazingly, each one has a different taste, different properties, are best for different dishes. I was out of urad (black gram) this week, and my trip to the Indian grocer yielded four different packages.

Urad dal is quite special indeed. I love it a lot. Mostly Nth Indian in style, it takes to long and slow cooking very well. For Mah ki Dal we use whole unhulled lentils.

You might like to try different Dal Makhani recipes, and other Mah ki Dal Recipes.

There is also a Unhulled Urad and Rajma recipe, another sister to Dal Makhani. For more information on Urad, go here.

Other Urad Dal recipes include Urad Dal Rice, Amritsari Dal, and Urad with Coconut, Coriander and Tomatoes.

Try other Dals as well – Masoor Dal with Green Chillies, Mung Dal with Ghee and Spices, and Aamti.

Browse all of our Dal recipes and all of our dishes using Urad Dal. Our Indian recipes are here. Or find inspiration in our Late Winter recipes.

Urad Dal Garlic Rice

How many ways do you know how to cook rice? In my part of the world people would probably respond 1, or 2 at the most. But if you asked in India, the answer would perhaps be in the 100’s. From Spinach Rice, to this beautiful Urad Dal Rice, to plain rice served with a myriad of spicy condiments mixed with the rice or sprinkled over the top. In Indian cuisines there is an endless variety.

The Urad Dal gives the rice texture, crunchiness and taste. The garlic is strong but not overwhelming. The coconut provides a taste of the tropics.

You can adjust the recipe and cook in a rice cooker if you prefer.

You might like to try any of our rice dishes, and more here. Especially try our South Indian Coconut Rice, Malaysian Kampung Rice, and Balinese Coconut Rice. Or explore our Indian recipes here and here. Be inspired by our Spring recipes here and here.

Dal Makhani Nilgiri

Anything with a hint of warmth certainly gives me much much joy.

 Dal Makhani is a Punjabi dish beloved all over India, indeed all over the world. There are a few Dal Makhani recipes that I love, all different and of varying degrees of difficulty. The Dal Makhani Oberoi Style Recipe that I received from the Kitchen of the Oberoi in Bangalore is a classic, a beauty, one that never fails to bring happiness to the lives of those who eat it.

This one is from the well known restaurant Nilgiri‘s in Sydney. Another classic, quite different to the Bangalore dish, and with its own beauty and inner sense of happiness. Try it, you will love it.

Our various Dal Makhani recipes can be found here. Browse our Dal Recipes here and here. Or explore our Winter recipes here and here.

Dal Makhani | Restaurant Style | Recipe from the Oberoi Hotel

One thing always guaranteed to melt the heart of everyone at your table is Dal Makhani. Boy is it good! This is one of several versions of Dal Makhani in our recipe collection. Another favourite is Nilgiri Dal Makhani – I hope that you try it too.

Makhani is the Punjabi word for “buttery”, and this sure lives up to its name of Buttery Lentils! I had this in India at the Oberoi hotel in Bangalore and it was so very very good. Along with their dosa, it was one of my first great discoveries when I began travelling to India.

Asking the Chef for the recipe, he kindly typed it out for me. It caused much hilarity in the kitchens – I am not sure whether that was because I asked for the recipe or their difficulty in translating it into English and/or into servings for 6 people when they are used to cooking for 600.

Are you looking for Dal Makhani recipes? Why not try some others too. We recommend Nilgiri Dal Makhani, Indian Bazaar Dal Makhani and Ma di Dal (Kali Dal). You might be interested in reading Why Mah di Dal is not Dal Makhani.

Or perhaps you are looking for Punjabi recipes. Try Quince Pickle, Potato and Eggplant Curry, and Baingan Bharta.

You might also browse all of our collection of Dal Makhani and similar recipes.  Our Punjabi recipes are here and our Indian recipes are here. Or find some inspiration in our Mid Winter recipes.

Urad Tamatar Dal | Urad Dal with Tomatoes

Urad, that black skin lentil, wonderfully creamy coloured under the skin, is a hard dal that takes a Life (Time) of Cooking (haha). Seriously, it does take a while to cook.

Most people know Urad through Dal Makhani. There are three versions here. One came from Nilgiris Restaurant, that iconic Indian restaurant in Sydney. One was given by the chef at the Oberoi in Bangalore. And the last one was given by a young man working at an Indian grocery. He recited it from memory, and it is very simple but rich in flavour.

Are you looking for similar Dal recipes? Try Simple Monk’s Dal, Urad with Tomato, Coconut and Coriander, Urad Dal Sundal, and Urad Dal Garlic Rice.

Browse all of the Urad recipes and our Indian recipes. Or explore and be inspired by our easy Late Autumn recipes.