Indian Recipes
Orange Dal with Ginger and Garlic
Red lentils simmered to a golden, soupy purée with ginger and turmeric, then topped with a sizzling tarka of garlic, cumin, mustard seeds and curry leaves.
- Serves 6
- Prep 10 min
- Cook 40 min
- Indian
Method
Put the lentils and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil, skimming off the froth. Add the turmeric and grated ginger, partly cover and simmer for 25–30 minutes, stirring now and then, until the lentils have broken down to a thick, soupy purée.
Stir in the tomato and 1 teaspoon of salt and simmer for 5 more minutes. Add a little hot water if it is too thick; it should pour slowly from a ladle. Add the lemon juice.
For the tarka, heat the ghee in a small frying pan. Add the cumin and mustard seeds and, when the mustard seeds pop, the asafoetida, dried chillies, curry leaves, ginger matchsticks and garlic. Fry for about 1 minute until the garlic is pale golden; do not let it burn.
Pour the sizzling tarka over the dal, scatter with coriander and serve with rice or chapatis.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
Chef’s notes
- Dal thickens as it stands; loosen with boiling water when reheating.
- Keeps 3 days in the fridge and freezes well.
How this recipe was developed
The old Cookeryonline page reproduced a published recipe, so we wrote a new one. We compared the daily dals of two of the best-known Indian cooks in the UK.
- Red lentils cooked to a purée. Madhur Jaffrey simmers red lentils for about 40 minutes until they break down; Meera Sodha’s daily dal is a similar everyday dal.
- Skim the froth. Jaffrey skims the froth as the lentils come to the boil, then simmers them with turmeric.
- Tarka last. Jaffrey pours a tarka of asafoetida, cumin, dried chillies, onion and garlic over the finished dal; we add mustard seeds, curry leaves and ginger matchsticks for the "ginger and garlic" of the dish name.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.