This Instant Pot Dal is packed with Kale! It is full of flavor, cozy, nourishing and immensely satisfying. It is a fantastic way to incorporate a lot of kale; even kale haters won't mind eating it. Swap kale for spinach or make it on the stovetop.
What exactly is dal? In its basic form, dal refers to split legumes such as lentils or chickpeas. However, when prepared as a dish, made by simmering together yellow or red split lentils with warming spices, onion, garlic, tomatoes to enhance the taste and to create a lovely, super-nutritious meal.
Dal holds a special place as a cornerstone of Indian cuisine, renowned for its simplicity and affordability. With just a handful of lentils, a medley of spices, it transforms into wholesome and gratifying meal, that's perfect with rice, rotis or both.
💡 Did you know? While commonly referred to as dal in Hindi, this versatile dish is known by different names across India. In Tamil, it's called paruppu, while in Telugu, it's known as pappu. The English rendition of this dish also varies, with spellings like dahl, daal, or dhal being used interchangeably.
Types of dal
There are numerous types of dal, each with its own unique taste and texture. Some popular types of dal include
- Masoor dal: Also known as red lentils, masoor dal is hulled and split lentils, resulting in a salmon-pink color. It cooks relatively quickly and has a slightly sweet flavor and results in a creamy consistency, when cooked.
- Toor or tuvar dal: Also called pigeon peas or arhar dal, toor dal is commonly used in South Indian cuisine to make sambhar and Gujarati cuisine.
- Chana dal: Made from split chickpeas, chana dal has a rich, nutty flavor and a slightly grainy texture. It is commonly used to make various Indian dal dishes, curries, snacks and even Indian sweets and desserts.
- Moong or mung dal: Split moong beans are used to make this dal, which cooks much quicker than other dhals and has a soft, creamy texture.
- Urad dal: Also referred to as black gram dal, urad dal has a rich, earthy flavor and develops a creamy texture upon cooking. It holds a prominent place in South Indian cuisine, featuring in beloved dishes such as dosa, idli, and vada. Furthermore, whole urad dal, complete with its skin, is used to make dishes like maa ki dal or kali dal.
This instant pot dal, also known as lentil curry, is simple, knock-your-socks-off good, and also wholesome and nutritous. It is my everyday Indian dal recipe for years and also makes a fabulous vegetarian instant pot recipe.
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Reasons to love it
Dals often require a long cooking to achieve a soft and creamy texture. The elevated pressure inside the pressure cooker or instant pot helps break down the fibers quickly, resulting in tender and well-cooked dals in a relatively short time and also retain the nutrients. This translates to significantly shorter cooking time compared to stovetop methods.
This instant pot dal makes a fabulous instant pot dinner like the Mexican chicken and rice.
Ingredients
Scroll down to the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and amounts.
- Dal - This instant pot dal recipe suggests a blend of moong and toor dal, resulting an optimal texture without resembling mashed baby food. Nevertheless, you can use all moong or toor dal.
- Kale - I use one whole bunch of kale for ½ cup of lentils! Looking for more kale recipes? Try this air fryer kale chips or roasted sweet potato and kale salad.
- Spices - Dal is made with far less spices than most Indian curries! This recipe calls for a simple combination of cumin seeds, turmeric, coriander and cayenne.
- Aromatics - Onion, garlic and tomato is a staple in Indian food recipes.
- Oil - Use your favorite cooking oil such as vegetable, coconut, avocado oil or ghee.
Types of kale to use - You can use Dinosaur or Tuscan kale as in the kale pasta, with dark green leaves or Winterbor or curly kale which has a lighter leaves. Don't prefer kale? Use chopped spinach instead. Refer notes on when to add it to the instant pot dal.
Love more vegetarian Indian curries? Try this chickpea curry with spinach or beet curry.
How to make?
You can find full printable recipe below, but here is a quick overview of the procedure along with step-by-step photos.
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Pro tip: This method of toasting the seeds in hot oil is known as tadka, used in authentic Indian curries.
Tip: Sauteing the spices in hot oil for a few seconds, blooms the spices and makes it more flavorful.
Step 9 - Open instapot, add some ghee and mash the kale dal using a ladle.
Consistency - With just a few swift searches on Indian dal recipes, you'll notice many are on the thicker side. However, true authentic dals in India boast a slightly thinner consistency, perfect for mixing with rice.
Stovetop instructions
- Place a large sauce pan over medium heat with oil and let it heat up.
- Add cumin seeds and let toast for few seconds. Stir in chopped onion, garlic, green chili and some salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to turn translucent, 2 to 4 minutes.
- Stir in coriander, cayenne and turmeric powders, and cook, stirring continously for a 20 to 30 seconds to toast the spices.
- Add daal, chopped kale, tomato and 2 cups of water. Give a good stir.
- Cover with a tight fitting lid, reduce heat to low and simmer gently for 45 minutes to one hour. Stir two or three times during the cooking time.
- Stir in some ghee and serve.
How to serve?
Instant pot dal with white rice is the most comforting of Indian food recipes. Brown rice or cooked quinoa will be just as good with this lentil curry for a healthier option. A side or whole wheat chapathi, paratha or naan makes it authentic!
Storage & Reheating
- To store: Store this creamy instant pot dal in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 4-5 days. Feel free to reheat it in the microwave or on the stovetop!
- To freeze: Indian dals freeze beautifully! Let the instant pot dal cool completely and then transfer it to a freezer-safe container or zipper bags and freeze for up to 2 months. To reheat, first let it thaw in the refrigerator, then heat it in the microwave or on the stovetop.
Helpful tips
- Adjust the quantity of kale used according to preference.
- Use spinach instead of kale.
- Use only moong dal or all toor dal instead of the mix.
- Skip green chilli to make it less spicy.
- Stir in a splash of coconut milk or about tablespoons of grated coconut at the end for an enhanced flavor in the instant pot dal.
More vegetarian dishes
Instant Pot Dal
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 1 to 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- ½ green chili optional
- ½ to ¾ teaspoon salt or to taste divided
- ½ teaspoon coriander powder
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper powder (Indian chili powder)
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ cup chopped tomatoes
- ½ cup Dal of choice I used an equal mix of moong and toor dal
- 1 bunch kale
- 1 to 2 tablespoons ghee
Instructions
Prep work
- Chop kale - Wash kale leaves. Working with one leaf at a time, remove the mid rib and then chop the tender leaf into small pieces.
- Wash and drain the daals.
Cook
- Heat instant pot to saute mode. Add vegetable oil when hot and give a minute for the oil to heat up.
- Add cumin seeds and let toast for few seconds. Stir in chopped onion, garlic, green chili and some salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to turn translucent, 2 to 4 minutes.
- Stir in coriander, cayenne and turmeric powders, and cook, stirring continously for a 20 to 30 seconds to toast the spices.
- Press cancel, add daal, chopped kale, tomato and 2 cups of water. Give a good stir.
- Close and lock lid, making sure that valve is set to sealing. Select manual setting (or pressure cooker) for 12 minutes. Open lid after a natural pressure release.
- Stir in some ghee, taste for salt and add more. Using a heavy ladle, mix the cooked daal for a few times to mash it well and give a thick and creamy consistency. Tip: If using chopped spinach instead of kale, add it at this stage, give it a good stir and cook in saute mode for 2 to 4 minutes or until the spinach has wilted.
- Pro tip: Stir in a splash of coconut milk or about tablespoons of grated coconut at the end for an enhanced flavor.
- Consistency - With just a few swift searches on Indian dal recipes, you'll notice many are on the thicker side. However, true authentic dals in India boast a slightly thinner consistency, perfect for mixing with rice.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information, based on third-party calculations, should be seen as estimates, not guarantees, as various factors like product types, brands, processing methods, and more can alter the nutritional content in recipes.
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LetsCurry
Kale and lentils- perfect combination and nutrition aspect in check. Another amazing recipe.
Ute
This dal is very bland and tasteless, very disappointed. Needs more spice.
Maria Doss
Hi Ute, I'm sorry that this didn't work for you. Traditionally, daals are mild and does not have much spice, so they are accompanied with a dry spicier vegetable/meat dish to be served with rotis / rice.
Lynn
Delicious use of kale. Thank you for the recipe. You mentioned using ghee if vegan. Ghee is clarified butter and is NOT vegan. There are many plant based alternatives in the markets to choose from. I left out the butter and oil and it came out great.
Maria Doss
Hi Lynn, Glad you liked the recipe and thank you for the pointer. We will make necessary changes, Maria