Cholar Dal Recipe Bengali Style Chana Dal Whiskaffair

on Feb 03, 2021, Updated Dec 21, 2023 If you like Bengali recipes, try more from my blog: Bengali Chicken Curry, Bengali Aloo Dum, Bengali Style Veg Pulao, Jhal Muri, Kosha Mangsho, and Basanti Pulao. We have had many Bengali friends at every stage of our lives. One common thing between them is that they all love their food and are so proud of it, and why not? Bengali cuisine is one of the finest and is still one of the most important factors binding the community together. My first encounter with cholar dal was at a friend’s house in Banda, the city I grew up in. Her family had invited some relatives, and my friend asked me to join. I was awestruck when I saw the lunch table; it was loaded with so much variety of food that I don’t even remember everything there. I quickly loaded my plate with Luchi, Cholar Dal, Aloor Dum, and various Mishti (Sweets) and instantly went into a food coma.

About Cholar Dal

Cholar Dal (Bengali Chana Dal, Chholar Dal) is a Bengali delicacy made using split Bengal gram (chana dal), fresh coconut, and a few other ingredients. Each Bengali household has its own way of making it. Some make it Niramish, i.e., without onions and garlic, and others with onions and garlic. Cholar dal can be served for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, along with luchi (Bengali poori), kochuri, porotta, or polao. Healthy, easy to make, light on the stomach, and super delicious, this lentil dish has perfectly balanced sweet and savory flavors and is unique from other dal recipes. Make this Bengali cholar dal recipe for everyday meals, special occasions, or festivals like Durga Puja. You can cook the dal in a traditional stovetop pressure cooker or an instant pot. I am sharing both methods in the post below. This vegetarian recipe can be easily doubled or tripled. I made it in my 3-quart instant pot (or a 3-liter pressure cooker). If you are scaling it, use a bigger instant pot or pressure cooker. The cooking time will remain the same. Turmeric powder and salt are added to the dal while cooking. Coconut – To add a unique flavor, fry some fresh coconut slices and add them to the dal. Tempering – This dal is tempered with ghee (or mustard oil), cumin seeds, asafetida (hing), fresh ginger, green chilies, raisins (kishmish), and sugar. Whole spices like dry red chilies, cloves (laung), cinnamon (dalchini), green cardamom (hari elaichi), and bay leaf (tejpatta) give the dal a lovely flavor. You will also need spice powders like coriander powder, roasted cumin powder, and garam masala powder. You can adjust the green chilies as per your taste. If you can get your hand on Bengali ghee, nothing is like it. You should be able to get it online or in any Indian grocery store near you. Use oil in place of ghee to make this dal vegan. Soak the dal in 3 cups of water for 30 minutes.

3 cups of water ½ teaspoon turmeric powder 1 teaspoon salt

Note – This dal is slightly thicker in consistency and not mushy like other Indian lentils. So please do not add a lot of water to it while cooking. Open the lid of the cooker. The dal should not be mushy after cooking. It should still hold its shape but is cooked well. Soak the dal in 3 cups of water for 30 minutes. Drain the water, add the soaked dal to an instant pot with the following ingredients, and stir gently.

2 and ½ cups of water ½ teaspoon turmeric powder 1 teaspoon salt

Close the instant pot lid and set the valve to the sealing position. Press the PRESSURE COOK button and set the timer to 15 minutes at high pressure. Once the timer goes off, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. Release the remaining pressure manually and then open the lid.

1 teaspoon cumin seeds ¼ teaspoon asafetida 4-5 whole dry red chilies 3-4 cloves 1-inch piece of cinnamon stick 2-3 whole green cardamom 2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon coriander powder ½ teaspoon roasted cumin powder ¼ teaspoon garam masala powder

Check for salt and add more if needed. Serve hot. This dal is supposed to be thick, like a latpati sabzi, so do not use excess water.