I had just gotten home from Home Depot when my husband Tejas called saying he was coming home. He’s had a cold for days and decided he was just not ready to go back to work. Poor thing. He was starving and requested I make dal.

So here is the simplest yummiest channa dal.

2 teaspoons oil
1 medium onion or red onion sliced
2 garlic cloves chopped
3 ginger slices
1 teaspoon tumeric
2 cups channa dal
2 small tomatoes chopped
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
Salt
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon jeera (cumin)
1/3 cup cilantro chopped

1. Heat first 2 teaspoons of oil in a pressure cooker.
2. Add onions and saute over high heat stirring constantly for a couple of minutes.
3. Add garlic and ginger and keep stirring until everything is lightly cooked.
4. Add tumeric and stir.
5. Add dal and water up to about a third of the pressure cooker.
6. Close the pressure cooker and heat on high until the first whistle, then lower the heat to medium and cook for about 14 minutes.
7. Add tomatoes (you can also add tomatoes before pressure cookering), chili powder, and salt.
8. Heat the other teaspoon of oil in a tadka pan or other small pan and add the jeera until it gets toasty and fragrant.
9. Add jeera and cilantro to dal and cook until it the consistency you like and the flavors meld.

A couple of notes about this recipe:

• Adding oil in the pressure cooker keeps the water and dal foam from spewing all over.
• Since the ginger is in big pieces, you can take them out before serving if you’d like. I ate them though just in case it might help me to not get Tejas’s cold!