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    Home » Recipes » Protein Dish

    Instant Pot dal tadka

    Modified: Jul 28, 2024 Published: Feb 16, 2021 by Sravanthi Chanda. 4 Comments

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    5 from 4 votes
    Detailed Steps Jump to Recipe

    This Instant pot dal tadka is a quick version of traditional Indian style dal tadka recipe in an Instant Pot.

    Indian style mixed dal tadka in a bowl

    Dal and rice is a comforting and filling meal for any day. Using this recipe, you can make both dal and rice in under 30 minutes and your lunch or dinner is sorted out for a busy day.

    Let's begin making dal tadka:

    • Start Instant pot in saute mode.
    • Once it is hot, add oil to the Inner Pot.
    • Now add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, green chili, and chopped ginger and garlic.
    • Once the garlic turns little brown, you can dish out the tempering into a small bowl so that you can add it at last. (optional)
    • Now add finely chopped onions and let them cook for a couple of minutes.
    • To this onion mixture, add finely chopped tomatoes and let them cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
    • To this cooked tomato, add coriander seeds powder, garam masala powder, turmeric powder, salt, and mix it well.
    • Now add washed dal (mix of toor, moong, masoor, and sabut masoor dal) to the inner pot.
    • Add water to this now.
    • Close the Instant Pot with lid, seal the vent. Select Manual or Pressure cook mode and cook the dal for 5 minutes on HIGH pressure.
    • For cooking rice along with dal, place a trivet on the top of dal. Then place the rice bowl on it and pressure cook for 5 minutes on HIGH pressure. 
    • If you want to cook rice with this dal, soak dal for 30 minutes. By soaking dal, we can cook both rice and dal at the same time.
    • Once the Instant Pot beeps, do a manual pressure release after 5 minutes.
    • Take the rice bowl and trivet out of the Instant Pot if cooking rice along with dal.
    • Mix the dal well and adjust salt if required. If you have saved tempering from the first step, add it now.
    • Garnish the dal with coriander leaves, and Indian-style dal tadka is ready to serve!

    Recipe Notes and variations:

    • You can skip onions and garlic to make this dal on fasting days.
    • You can use any dal to make this dal taka. 
    • This dal tadka will taste good even with only one type of dal. It can be any dal - toor dal(yellow pigeon peas), masoor dal (red lentils), moong dal (yellow lentils), or whole masoor dal (brown lentils).
    • Given timings work for almost all types of lentils mentioned above.
    • If using only toor dal or arhar dal (pigeon peas lentils), soak them for 30 minutes and cook for 5 minutes on HIGH pressure.
    • If you forget to soak toor dal, cook them for 6 or 7 minutes on HIGH pressure.
    • If you use old lentils, it may take a bit longer time to cook them. In that case, skip adding salt before and add it after you pressure cook the dal. With added salt, lentils might not cook properly.

    Have you tried this recipe? Provide your feedback by giving a star rating and/or leaving comments. And don't forget to share the recipe with others on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter.

    Dal tadka recipe:

    Recipe

    A bowl of mixed dal tadka garnished with fresh cilantro, served on a decorative clay plate.

    Instant pot dal tadka

    By: Sravanthi Chanda
    Make this quick version of traditional Indian style dal tadka in an Instant Pot in just 30 minutes and your lunch or dinner is sorted out!

    Rate this recipe by clicking the stars!

    5 from 4 votes
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 5 minutes mins
    Cook Time 25 minutes mins
    Course Main Course
    Cuisine Indian
    Servings 4
    Calories 176 kcal
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    Ingredients
      

    • ¾ cup mixed lentils (I used Moong dal, toor dal, Masoor dal, Sabut masoor dal)
    • 2 cups water
    • ½ cup tomatoes Chopped
    • ¼ cup onion Chopped
    • 1 tablespoon oil
    • 1 green chili
    • ½ teaspoon ginger chopped
    • 4 garlic cloves
    • ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
    • ½ teaspoon coriander seeds powder
    • ¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
    • ¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
    • ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
    • 1 tablespoon coriander leaves chopped
    • 1 teaspoon Salt adjust as per taste

    Instructions
     

    • Start Instant pot in saute mode.
    • Once it is hot, add oil to the Inner Pot.
    • Now add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, green chili, and chopped ginger and garlic.
    • Once the garlic turns little brown, you can dish out the tempering into a small bowl so that you can add it at last. (optional)
    • Now add finely chopped onions and let them cook for a couple of minutes.
    • To this onion mixture, add finely chopped tomatoes and let them cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
    • To this cooked tomato, add coriander seeds powder, garam masala powder, turmeric powder, salt, and mix it well.
    • After a couple of minutes, add washed dal (mix of toor, moong, masoor, and sabut masoor dal) to the inner pot.
    • Add water to this now. Close the Instant Pot with lid, seal the vent. Select Manual or Pressure cook mode and cook the mixed dal for 5 minutes on HIGH pressure.
    • For cooking rice along with dal, place a trivet on the top of dal. Then place the rice bowl on it and pressure cook for 5 minutes on HIGH pressure. 
    • Once the Instant Pot beeps, do a manual pressure release after 5 minutes.
    • Mix the dal well and adjust salt if required. If you have saved tempering from the first step, add it now.
    • Garnish the dal with coriander leaves, and Indian style dal tadka is ready to serve!

    Notes

    • You can skip onions while making this dal tadka recipe.
    • Adjust green chili according to your taste. 
    • You can make this recipe with ghee instead of oil.
    • This dal tadka recipe can be made using any kind of dal or mixed dal.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 176kcalCarbohydrates: 25gProtein: 10gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 0.3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.01gSodium: 629mgPotassium: 425mgFiber: 12gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 178IUVitamin C: 7mgCalcium: 37mgIron: 3mg
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    Comments

    1. Rebecca says

      April 20, 2022 at 3:15 pm

      Sorry, I'm not clear - is the dal cooked at pressure for 10 minutes in total - 5 minutes on its own plus 5 minutes with the rice?

      Reply
      • Sravanthi says

        April 25, 2022 at 8:36 pm

        It's only 5 minutes for only dal or dal plus rice.

        Reply
    2. Terry Brogdon says

      May 10, 2021 at 1:17 am

      Not too sure about the measurements. How can two tomatoes be a half cup or one onion be a quarter cup? Hoping for clarification. This is one of my favorite Indian dishes.

      Reply
      • Sravanthi says

        May 10, 2021 at 9:09 pm

        Usually, Indian tomatoes and onions will be in a smaller size. I have updated the recipe.

        Reply
    5 from 4 votes (4 ratings without comment)

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    Sravanthi Chanda author of everydaynourishingfoods

    I'm Sravanthi Chanda and I share Indian lunch and dinner recipes on my blog. These easy-to-follow recipes are made from scratch using fresh ingredients and come with step-by-step photos, perfect for family meals.

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