Toovar nu Dal (Pigeon Pea Dal)

Tonight's dinner involed a lot of failing over to plan B (or C or D). I was trying to pick recipes that would use up leftover ingredients that had been sitting in the fridge for a while. Unfortunately they'd been there a bit too long. The excess khoya and leftover mango salsa weren't looking (or smelling) super happy anymore. So instead of peas with khoya and yogurt, I ended up going with a creamy mushroom and pea curry. And instead of mangoes in pigeon pea broth, I gave this pigeon pea dal a try. Or, a variation on it, I guess. It turns out that I was also running low on pigeon peas, so I had to use a mix of pigeon peas and yellow split peas. It worked out okay in the end though.

Toovar nu Dal

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. skinned split pigeon peas¹
• 2 pieces dried kokum
• 3 c. water, divided
• 1 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp. fenugreek seeds
• 1/4 tsp. ground asafetida
• 1 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 15 fresh or frozen curry leaves
• 2-4 fresh green Thai chilies, halved lengthwise
• 1 tomato², chopped
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 Tbsp. jaggery
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric

Directions

1. Swish the peas around in some water, drain them, and rinse them again.
2. Place rinsed peas in a pot with the kokum and 2 1/2 c. of the water.
3. Bring to a boil, skim and foam that forms, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 20-25 minutes (or longer if using split peas instead of pigeon peas).
4. Meanwhile, melt ghee over medium-high heat.
5. Add mustard seeds, cover, and cook until seeds have stopped popping (30-60 seconds).
6. Add cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafetida, and ginger paste and cook for another minute or so.
7. Stir in the remaining 1/2 c. water, remove from heat, and set aside.
8. Once peas are done, remove the kokum and puree the peas with their cooking water. And immersion blender works well for this. Otherwise you may have to do them in multiple batches in a blender jar.
9. Stir the spice mixture and its water into the pureed peas.
10. Add the curry leaves, chilies, tomato, cilantro, jaggery, salt, and turmeric and cook over medium-low heat for 5-7 minutes.
11. Serve with rice and/or papads.

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¹ Other legumes will also work here, but you'll have to adjust the cooking time accordingly. Skinned split pigeon peas only take ~20 minutes to cook, but yellow split peas take a bit longer. I had to cook mine for ~35 minutes. ^Back
2 I didn't have any fresh tomatoes on hand, so I used ~200mL of canned diced tomatoes. ^Back