Methi Daal is here but the blog post is not. Finally a day when I am too busy and too tired to finish today’s blog post.
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This is how the post on Methi Daal started out. Well, to tell you the truth, I was a bit under the weather, and was engrossed in writing another blog post about Lufthansa’s new Premium Economy. Turned out it took almost the whole day, and although I had cooked the daal, eaten it for lunch, and taken photos, the narrative itself had to be written down.
Hopefully, you readers will forgive me this transgression. Methi Daal comes close on the heels of Palak Daal which is not how I planned it. I am sure you guys need some variety. You wouldn’t necessarily cook this two days in a row in a real life scenario. But then again, maybe you would. See the thing is, we generally buy our greens from certain vendors who sell just different kinds of greens. They can be spotted only certain times of the day, so when we buy from them, we tend to stock up on 3-4 bunches of different things like spinach, methi, coriander and so on.
Fresh greens notoriously have a low shelf life. So many times, we end up cooking these one after the other.
This methi daal is so so simple. I have tried to show you yet another way of serving this by using a separate tadka or tempering. This is like the one we did for Daal Methya. This kind of daal/ vegetable is generally served with bhakri in our home.
If you live in a place where you cannot get methi greens or fenugreek greens, don’t despair. Kasoori Methi will come to your rescue. I have used it successfully for many years to make methi parathas, methi daal and other things.
All you have to do is reconstitute it in some hot water a few minutes before making the dish. it won’t be as abundant as fresh greens, but it will certainly give the flavor.
The recipe of methi daal is super simple. Garlic gives it the real flavor, but we are using the garlic as a topping here. Garlic flavors the oil which we are going to pour over the daal. But there is always a tussle for the pieces of fried garlic. Jaggery or sugar is must to balance out the flavor of the bitter fenugreek.
Methi Daal Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup toor daal cooked
- 1 cup fresh methi greens chopped
- 1 Tbsp oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- pinch of hing
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp goda masala optional
- 1-2 Tbsp jaggery or sugar
- salt to taste
- 6 Tbsp oil
- 7-8 garlic cloves whole
- 2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp hing or Asafoetida
Method
- Heat oil in a wok.
- Add mustard seeds and let them pop. Add hing, turmeric, cayenne and the methi greens.
- Fry for a while and cook with a lid on for 5-10 minutes.
- Add the toor daal and mix well.
- Add water to get desired consistency.
- Season with salt and jaggery/ sugar and bring to a boil.
- Simmer for 5-10 minutes.
- Heat the oil in a small wok.
- When oil is about to smoke, add the mustard seeds and hing.
- Immediately add garlic and let it turn light brown.
- Switch off heat and remove from the gas stove or burner.
- Ladle the Daal in serving vessel or plate.
- Spoon some of the garlic oil on top carefully getting a bit of mustard seeds and garlic.
- Serve with roti or rice as part of an Indian meal.
I hope you make this simple recipe for your family. #30daysofdaal is just warming up. Stay tuned for the next yummy daal recipe coming your way. You can sign up for our newsletter below so you don’t miss any posts.
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