This time last year, I was busy with my 30 Days of Daal blogging marathon. As many of you know, 30 Days of Daal went on to become a popular book that has been appreciated globally. Well, that was 2015. Now I am back with a new dal recipe – Raw Mango Dal recipe.
The summer of 2016 has been pretty slack in terms of blogging. This is my first post after almost a month. Let’s just put it in the unavoidable circumstances silo for now. This Mango Dal is a summer special. Made with raw, green mangoes, it can be as sour or tart as you want it to be. If you love mangoes and want the mango flavor to shine, then it has to be sour, period.
I made this mango dal recipe sometime in March or early April, posted the photos on Twitter and Instagram, but never really got down to blogging about it. With summer almost gone here in Pune – actually it’s not – I thought it high time to talk about this fabulous dal.
Now what’s the deal with #Turmeric?? If you read anything about food anywhere, you know turmeric is the latest foodie craze. ‘Curry’ gets its yellow color from turmeric. Saying a yellow colored Indian curry has turmeric actually seems moot. But let’s just say I’m joining the herd :).
What about this recipe? The Mango Dal has been a mainstay in my family forever. I think it stemmed from the frugal Indian quality to not waste anything. So after my granny used up most of the mango to make pickles, relishes and jams, and maybe used some scraps near the pith to make chutneys, she would pop the pith in the pressure cooker along with Dal or lentils. As the lentils cooked, any residual flavor from the mango’s pith would infuse the dal. This had a double advantage – not only did she get max value from the pith, she saved on the tamarind or kokum she would otherwise add as a souring agent to the dal lentils.
I have used a slightly frivolous approach here by using grated and sliced mango. I put some mango slices into the Dal while it was cooking. And then I added another layer of flavor by adding grated mangoes while simmering the cooked dal.
The tadka or tempering is simple, using cumin seeds, dry red chilis and garlic. It is my favorite Dal Tadka recipe and it works well here.
How do you eat this Mango Dal? Serve it with steaming hot rice or roti, or just slurp it like a soup. Either way, you have a healthy, frugal, vegan recipe that will feed the entire family.
Mango Dal with Turmeric Recipe
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Serve this tart, garlic and cumin flavored daal this summer. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions.
