Instant Pot Toor Dal – Easy Lentil Soup

Shilpa

Instant Pot Toor Dal – Easy Lentil Soup

This Instant Pot Toor Dal – Lentil Soup is loaded with delicious spices and very easy to make. One bowl is never enough!

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Prep Time 5

Cook Time 25

Total Time 30

Servings: 4

Course: Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

1 cup toor dal
1 and 1/2 tbsp oil or ghee
1/2 tsp asafoetida (heeng)
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1 serrano pepper, small (hari mirch)
8 curry leaves
1/2 onion (1/2 cup chopped)
1 tsp ginger garlic paste (freshly minced or packaged)
1 tomato, large (1 cup chopped)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric (haldi)
1 tsp ground coriander (dhaniya powder)
3/4 tsp red chili powder (cayenne pepper)
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 and 1/4 tsp salt
3 cups water
3 tbsp cilantro (dhaniya ke patte)
1 tbsp lemon juice

Equipment

Pressure Cooker

Method

Prep

Finely rinse and dice the onion.
Rinse and chop the tomato and slit the green chili vertically but keep it still intact. Rinse and chop the cilantro finely and set it aside.
Rinse the dal with water a couple of times and set aside.

Cook

Select sauté on the instant pot.
Add oil or ghee to the pot. Then add in asafoetida, cumin seeds, green chili, and curry leaves.
After the cumin seeds splutter add in onions and ginger garlic paste. Stir well.
After the onions turn golden brown, add in tomato, ground turmeric, ground coriander, red chili powder, garam masala and salt and sauté the tomatoes for 2 to 3 minutes until the tomatoes are mushy.
Add the washed dal and water. Stir it all up.
Press cancel. Furthermore, Close the lid and select manual for 15 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes and then quick release the pressure. Finally open the lid and garnish with lemon juice and cilantro leaves.
Transfer to a serving bowl and serve with steamed white rice.

Notes

This dal tends to thicken if kept in the refrigerator for the next day. You can add a little boiling water to thin it as needed.

You can reduce the red chili powder or eliminate the serrano pepper as per your spice tolerance. On a scale of 1 to 5, I would place this dal at 3 in terms of spice levels, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.