Mung aur Masoor Dal

For a while now I’ve been seeing posts and reviews about electric pressure cookers, specifically the Instant Pot. It’s become quite popular within the Indian community – so much so that there are entire Facebook groups and Pinterest boards dedicated to making Indian food with this cooker!

I’ve used a stove-top pressure cooker for years and have even taught classes on making both vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods with my cooker. I truly believe it is an indispensable tool in my kitchen. Although I have known about the existence of electric cookers for a while, I resisted buying one. First of all, I had recently purchased a new stove top cooker and couldn’t justify another expense. Secondly, although I like my kitchen gadgets, I also believe in the less is more principle, meaning I can get by with multitasking  the tools I have.

The 2017 Amazon Prime day had the 8qt Instant Pot on special – so I took a chance and went ahead with the purchase.

It arrived quickly (go prime membership!). I unpacked it and my first thought was “Whoa – this is quite large!”.

The first thing I made with my new Instant Pot – a simple dal and spinach dish. I did everything in the cooker itself – from heating and flavoring the oil (tardka), to sautéing the onions, tomatoes and spinach and pressure cooking the dal.

My final result was tasty, quick and very satisfying! The cooker has a bit of a learning curve – directions are pretty non-existent and

the buttons are not intuitive. But there is plenty of help online and once you learn the basics its nice to be able to set it and forget about it!

The best thing was that I was able to walk away from the pot once I put the lid on. I didn’t have to be in the kitchen babysitting something on the stove top. Additionally, there was minimal noise and practically no heat that came off the unit (a wonderful thing in the summers!).

Quick note – I add salt and lemon juice to my pressure cooked dal dishes only after cooking. Adding these before pressure cooking can cause tough lentils/beans and/or increased cooking times.

Mung and Masoor Dal

Ingredients

1/2 cup mung dal

1/2 cup masoor dal

1 tbsp. coconut oil or ghee

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 dried red chilies

6-8 fresh curry leaves

A generous dash of hing (asafetida powder)

4 oz yellow onion, sliced thin

3 roma tomatoes, diced

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 – 1 tsp ground chili powder (or to taste)

4 cups water

salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

juice of 1 lemon

1-2 tbsp cilantro leaves and thin stems, chopped

Method

1. Set InstantPot to Sauté mode and heat oil.
2. Once oil is hot, add cumin seeds, dried chilies, curry leaves and hing. Heat until the seeds sizzle. 
3. Now add onions and sauté until onions turn soft and translucent.
4. Add tomatoes – stir and cook until tomatoes become soft and pulpy.
5. Add turmeric and chili powder. Stir well to incorporate spices.
6. Next add lentils and water, give a good stir to ensure everything is mixed well.
7. Press the Cancel button on the InstantPot and close the lid. Make sure that the vent is set to sealed.
8. Set InstantPot to Manual (or Pressure Cook) mode and increase time to 7 minutes.
9. Once the timer goes off, do a Quick Release.
10. Open lid and give the lentil mixture a quick stir.
11. Set InstantPot to Sauté mode again salt, and black pepper.
12. Allow dal to simmer until desired consistency is achieved (simmer longer for a thicker consistency, shorter for thinner. If it is too thick when lid is opened, add a bit of water). Press cancel when done.
13. Lastly, add lemon juice and cilantro. Stir and serve warm with basmati rice.