Simple vegan Dal Pasta flavoured with garlic, green chillies and yellow dal (lentils) is certainly an amazing twist for your pasta nights. We initially came up with this recipe because of some leftover yellow dal and it turned out so amazing that we now prepare extra lentils just to make this. This recipe is so quick to make, you don't need a lot of preparation, just get good quality yellow lentils and boil them with the below selected ingredients. Boiling your lentils along with these ingredients not only increases its flavour, but also makes it healthy to consume and easier to cook pasta with. I never use oil for this recipe, or for cooking yellow lentils at all, I always cook them in ghee. You can also use butter but I highly recommend ghee for the best flavour and aroma. So lets get started.
Equipment
- pressure cooker
- saucepan/frying pan
Ingredients
- 1 cup yellow lentils (dal)
- 2 cups macaroni pasta
- 1 inch ginger finely chopped
- 4 pods garlic finely chopped
- 3 fresh green chillies finely chopped
- 1 medium tomato finely chopped
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tbsp ghee/butter
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- salt to taste
- 4 cups water for boiling lentils & pasta
Instructions
- Wash the lentils and pour in pressure cooker along with 2 cups of water
- Along with lentils, add cumin seeds, 1 pod of chopped garlic, tomato, salt, 1 tbsp ghee and red chilli powder in the pressure cooker, mix and boil for 15 minutes/4 whistles on medium low flame
- Keep open the lid of pressure cooker to let the lentils cool down then mash gently using a ladle, the consistency shall be thick like a loose paste.
- Meanwhile boil pasta in 2 cups of salted water until soft, drain and keep aside
- In a sauce pan or frying pan, add remaining 1 tbsp of ghee, mustard seeds and let them crackle
- Add ginger, garlic and green chillies, stir fry for a minute then add chopped onions in it and fry until transparent
- Now add mashed lentils and cook for 3-4 mins stirring to mix evenly
- Finally gently fold in boiled pasta and mix evenly, cook for another 2 minutes, check for salt, then top with coriander and serve hot. Enjoy.
Notes
- Always add cumin seeds and a little amount of garlic while boiling lentils, this gives them nice flavour and also good for health.
- Depending on your preference, you can add more ghee and red chillies while stir frying to make it spicy.
- The consistency of lentils needs to be thick to form a creamy pasta mixture, hence boil with less quantity of water.