Our Simple Instant Pot Dhal Recipe

Step 1: Soak 2 cups of red lentils (Masoor dhal), ideally few hours, but a last-minute soaking of 30-45 minutes also works fine.

Step 2: Prepare your ingredients

1 Tbl. Black mustard seeds

1 Tbl. Coriander seeds

1 Tbl. Cumin seeds

1 tsp. Black peppercorns

3 pods cardamom

A bit of turmeric

Reduce everything to a powder in a dry blender or grinder. This is your masala, or spice mixture.

Prepare the other components:

Chop 1 onion

Dice 3 cloves of garlic

Mince 2 inches of Ginger

Get a 796 ml (28oz) can of crushed or pureed tomatoes (even diced tomatoes are fine, it will change the texture of the dhal)

Optional: chop another vegetables of your choice: celery, carrots, etc.

Step 3: Make the Dhal:

• Put the Instant Pot on “Sauté.”
• Put 2 Tbl. of coconut oil or ghee.
• Add the masala to the melted oil/ghee. Let it sizzle for a minute.
• Add the onion, garlic, and ginger, stir for another minute.
• Add the can of tomatoes.
• Add an empty tomato can’s worth of water, a bit more if you like the dhal thinner.
• Drain the lentils and add them.
• Add salt to taste, I like to put at least half Tbl. of salt.

Cancel the "Sauté" mode and reset the pressure cooker to “Pressure Cook”. Set the time to 21 minutes.

This reheats very well and freezes well.