Dal Makhani - Creamy Soup of Lentils / Lentils Soup

We had a Potluck on Saturday night with a full course of North Indian Menu starting from chat...I made Dal Makhani as one of the side dishes..This time I made it with Rajma ( Dark Red Beans ), Kali Masoor Dal ( Black Lentils ), Red Chori ( Red karamani ) not with black urad dal. This brownish bowl of lentil soup fills the stomach of the family greatly and fills my heart with great satisfaction as it contains high amount of protein, folate,vitamins, energy ,etc. Its great for parties as its very easier to prepare this Dal Makhani and the process is also quicker. Did not add the fresh cream at the end as we liked to taste the Makhani with its mild spicyness..

Ingredients

Red Beans ( Rajma ) - 1/2 Cup

Red Chori ( Red Karamani ) - 3/4 Cup

Kala Masoor ( Black Lentils ) - 3/4 Cup

Jeera - 2 tsp

Cloves / Lavang - 4 or 5

Cinnamon Sticks / Pattai - 3 Medium Size

Olive Oil - 1 tbsp

Onion - 1 Medium

Ripe Tomato - 1 Big

Green Chilli - 1 Medium

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp

Turmeric Powder - 2 tsp

Garam Masala Powder - 1 tbsp

Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp

Red Chilli Powder -  0.5 tbsp

Salt - To Taste

Sugar - 1 Pinch

Coriander Leaves - To Garnish

Method

1. Wash the Red Beans ( Rajma ), Kala Masoor, Red Chori ( Karamani ) first thoroughly and soak it in water for 3 - 4 hours.
2. After its soaked, pressure cook the Lentils with 1 tsp of turmeric powder, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 tsp of salt for 4-5 whistles.
3. Meantime, cut the tomato, onion,green chilli into desired shapes, keep the other ingredients ready on the side.
4. On a thick bottomed kadai, add Olive Oil first for tempering. When its heated, add the jeera, cinnamon stick, cloves first. Then, add the finely cut onion, green chilli pieces and fry them for a minute.
5. Add ginger garlic paste next to the mix and fry till the raw smell goes off.
6. Add the tomato pieces next to the mix and fry them till they all get mashed and pasty.
7. Then, add all the powders as mentioned above and fry them nicely till all the powders get mixed with the tomato paste and fried little bit.
8. Add a pinch of sugar and pour the cooked dal from the pressure cooker directly onto the kadai with the remaining cooked water in the pressure cooker.
9. Add required amount of salt into the kadai and mix all the contents well. Allow them to cook for 4-5 minutes for the Makhani to get settled with all the powders and flavours.
10. After its cooked, switch off the flame and garnish with coriander leaves. It can be well served with a combination of Ghee rice, Jeera Rice, Peas Pulao or with plain chappathi / rotis.

Tips

Soak the Lentils for more time if they are too dry and cook them very well to get a creamy texture of the Dal Makhani.

Add few tsp of ghee or melted butter at the end if its made for a potluck or a party.

Variations

You can add fresh cream at the end on top of the Dal Makhani.

You can add or reduce red chilli powder to fine tune the spicyness of the Makhani.

You can substitute different lentils like Black Urad Dal in this dish with the ones I used.

Wheat Rava Idlies

Though I am a big fan of regular Idlies, I just wanted to try the same Idli concept with wheat rava. Since few weeks, I have been planning to try this out by myself.  I substituted Idly rice ( Idly Rava ) with Wheat rava, the one that we generally use for making Uppuma. Looking at the idlies, its difficult to find out that its made out of wheat rava. As these idlies don't have any rice, I am sure that it should be a good tiffin item for diabetic people and a very healthy breakfast for all ages. With a side of good spicy chutney, these mild yellow colour idlies would definitely be added in your regular breakfast menu or dinner menu.

Ingredients

Wheat rava -  3 Cups

Urad Dal / Ulatham paruppu / Minna Pappu - 1 Cup

Fresh Coriander Leaves - 1 Handful finely shredded

Salt - To Taste

Fresh Curd - 1 / 2 Cup

For Tempering

Olive Oil - 2 tsp

Hing / Asafoetida - 1 dash

Mustard Seeds - 2 tsp

Jeera - 2 tsp

Curry Leaves - 5 or 6 crushed

Black Pepper Powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Method

1. Soak the wheat rava and the urad dal separately for 3-4 hours.
2. Grind the Urad Dal to a fluffy consistency like how you grind for a normal Idly.
3. Now mix the Urad dal batter with the wheat rava in a big container thoroughly.
4. Add required amount of salt to the Idly Batter and keep it for fermentation.
5. After its fermented, do tempering process with the ingredients as mentioned above with little oil and pour them over the batter.
6. Add a handful of finely shredded coriander leaves on top of it.
7. Add 0.5 cup of fresh curd to the Idly batter and mix very well.
8. Now add drops of oil into the Idly Moulds and spread the oil over the Idly plates.  Pour the idly batter over the Idly moulds upto the level equally on all the moulds.
9. Cook all the Idlies in a Idly cooker for about 10-12 minutes.
10. Check whether the Idlies are fully cooked inside. After its cooked, allow the cooker to cool down for few minutes.
11. Then open the Idly plates and carefully take out the Idlies from the Idly moulds one by one.
12. Serve the Idlies with any spicy chutney.

Variations

You can add finely shredded carrot, peas to the Idly batter and serve it to kids.

You can add a cup of sour curd to the Idly batter and can make the Idlies instantly without the process of  fermentation. But from my experience, if you make these Idlies with a slightly fermented batter, the idlies are softer and have enough moist content inside and not too dry.

You can make mini idlies with this batter and give it as an evening snack to kids.

Tips

Allow the Idly batter to ferment atleast for few hours before making the idlies.

Don't grind the batter too watery. Grind the batter to the correct Idly consistency.