Dishoom Dal in the Slow Cooker
This is the famous Dishoom black dal recipe adapted to be made in the slow cooker! Using a slow cooker makes this recipe a little easier to make at home and much more hands-off than the stovetop version. We are using the real recipe from Dishoom's own cookbook to make sure the flavor is perfect - it really is the ultimate dal makhani!
Ingredients
- 300 g (1.5 cups) dry black (urad) lentils, thoroughly washed and soaked overnight
- 70 g (4.5 tbsp) tomato puree (tomato paste)
- 12 g (2 ¼ tsp) garlic puree
- 10 g (1 ¾ tsp) ginger puree
- 8 g (½ Tbsp) salt
- ⅔ tsp deggi mirch
- ⅓ tsp garam masala
- 90 g (6 Tbsp) unsalted butter
- 90 ml (⅓ cup) double cream (heavy cream)
- 1 litre (4.5 cups) water
Instructions
- To prepare your lentils, rinse them extensively and soak overnight. The next day, drain and rinse them until the water is clear.
- Add the lentils to a slow cooker with the water and cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours, until they are soft and cooked through.
- Drain the dal from the slow cooker pan. No need to rinse, just drain it through a sieve so that most of the cooking water runs out.
- Return to the pan and top up with about 450ml (just under 2 cups) of fresh water (I recommend boiled water to make sure that the pan heats up quickly again). Enough that all of the lentils are just submerged. Cook on HIGH until the lentils are bubbling in the new water, which shouldn't be long if you used boiling water, but will take some time if you added cold water.
- Meanwhile, mix together the tomato puree, garlic puree, ginger puree, salt, deggi mirch and garam masala.
- Once the lentils are bubbling again, add the tomato mix and the butter. Cover and cook for 5 minutes so that the butter warms up and starts to melt.
- Lift the lid and stir until the butter and tomato mix are melted through the dal.
- Cover again and reduce the temperature to LOW, then cook for another 3-4 hours. You may wish to open the lid stir once or twice during this time to make sure it isn't sticking. In the end, you should have a thick dal with lots of broken down lentils as well as whole ones.
- Add the cream, then cover and cook for another 20 minutes or so, just to make sure it's heated back up again, then you can serve it immediately.
Notes
To swap in fresh ginger, use 2 teaspoons of minced or finely chopped fresh ginger.
To swap in fresh garlic, you can use 3 cloves, minced.
Calories: 326kcal, Carbohydrates: 28g, Protein: 13g, Fat: 18g, Saturated Fat: 11g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 5g, Trans Fat: 0.5g, Cholesterol: 49mg, Sodium: 631mg, Potassium: 149mg, Fiber: 11g, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 843IU, Vitamin C: 5mg, Calcium: 58mg, Iron: 4mg