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Daal & beans

Daal Masoor Recipe

دال مسور بنانے کا طریقہ

Everyday daal masoor: red lentils simmered soft with tomato and turmeric, then finished with a sizzling tarka of fried onion, garlic and cumin.
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Illustration of Daal Masoor

Prep

10 min

Cook

30 min

Marinate / soak

20 min

Serves

4

Difficulty

Easy

Spice

Mild

Washed red masoor is the quickest daal in a Pakistani kitchen and the one most homes cook every week. It needs no pressure cooker: the lentils collapse on their own in about 20 minutes into a smooth, pourable daal. All the flavour comes from the baghaar at the end, so take your time getting the onion properly brown before the hot oil goes over the daal.

Ingredients

4 servings

For 4 servings

Measures

For the tarka (baghaar)

To finish

Method

  1. Wash the masoor in 3 or 4 changes of water until the water runs nearly clear, then leave it to soak in fresh water.

    ⏱ 20 min

  2. Drain the daal and put it in a pot with 4 cups of water, the tomato, ginger-garlic paste, salt, turmeric, red chilli powder and green chillies. Bring to the boil on high heat and skim off the froth.

    ⏱ 5 min

  3. Lower the heat, partly cover and simmer, stirring now and then, until the lentils have broken down completely.

    ⏱ 20 min

  4. Whisk the daal with a ghotni or a wire whisk for a minute so it turns smooth. Add hot water if it is thicker than you like; it thickens more as it sits. Keep it on the lowest heat.

    ⏱ 1 min

  5. For the tarka, heat the oil in a small pan on medium heat and fry the sliced onion until deep golden brown.

    ⏱ 7 min

  6. Add the garlic, cumin, dried red chillies and curry leaves and fry for about 30 seconds until the garlic is light gold. Do not let the garlic go dark or it turns bitter.

    ⏱ 1 min

  7. Pour the sizzling tarka straight over the daal and cover the pot for a minute to trap the aroma. Sprinkle garam masala and coriander and serve.

    ⏱ 1 min

Tips for the best result

  • Soaking for even 20 minutes makes the lentils cook evenly and stops the daal from feeling gritty.
  • Some families fry the tomato with the onion in the tarka instead of boiling it with the daal. That gives a thicker, more masala-like daal; both ways are common.
  • A squeeze of lemon just before eating lifts the whole pot.

Common mistakes

  • Adding the salt and tarka too early. The tarka loses its crackle if it simmers for long, so add it right at the end.
  • Making the daal too thick in the pot. Masoor sets as it cools, so leave it a little looser than you want it on the plate.

How to serve

Serve hot with plain boiled rice or roti, with kachumar salad and a pickle on the side.

Storing and reheating

Keeps 3 days in the fridge and freezes well for a month. Add hot water when reheating, since it thickens a lot.

Nutrition and cost

Worked out from the ingredients, not measured in a lab. Treat both as a rough guide.

Per serving Estimate

Calories
325kcal
Protein
13g
Fat
15g
Carbs
37g
Fibre
6.6g
Sodium
590mg

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (April 2018), public domain values for the raw ingredients (100% of the recipe by weight had data). Deep-frying oil is counted at 20%; bones and water lost in cooking are not subtracted, so bone-in and fried dishes can read high. Not medical advice. Method

Cost per servingEstimate

≈ Rs 34

Whole dish ≈ Rs 135 · 96% of ingredients by weight priced

From the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics weekly SPI, week ended 29 Oct 2026. Spices, herbs and some vegetables are not in the SPI and are left out unless you add your price, so the real cost is a little higher. How this works

Daal Masoor: questions people ask

Do I need to soak masoor daal?

Washed red masoor cooks without soaking, but 20 to 30 minutes in water makes it cook faster and more evenly. Whole brown masoor does need a longer soak.

Why does my daal taste flat?

Usually the salt is low or the tarka was rushed. Brown the onion fully, use enough oil for the tarka, and check salt after the daal has broken down.

Serve it with, and similar recipes

All daal recipes

Read this recipe in Urdu: دال مسور بنانے کا طریقہ

https://handi.danixsoft.com/recipes/daal-masoor · Handi, DanixSoft