Chana Dal With Bell Pepper

From: VictoriaL

On Aug 8, 2006

Bought a lauki, couldn't find the recipe that I had wanted to use it in, so I found this one. It was really good. I soaked the dal in water for 2 hours, then just to clarify the directions on "time"-- it took 30 minutes for the dal to soften then another 10 for the cubes of lauki to soften. I added 2 teaspoons sweet curry (and a little hot curry) powder because I didn't have curry leaves. And I added about 50% more of the spices. But it's a great base recipe to build on, adding ingredients according to preference and omitting what isn't on hand.

From: abdulsater

On Feb 15, 2006

This was very good.I left out the bell pepper,bay leaf,cloves,garlic paste,ginger paste,corriander leaf,parsley and cinnamon stick,The meal still came out delicious and added jaggery.Fantastic

From: In_A_Frenzy

On May 24, 2005

Delicious! I didn't change a thing. It was a nice change from the regular way i cook channa.

From: Charishma Ramchandani

On Dec 17, 2004

This was a yummy dal and we thoroughly enjoyed every spoon of it. At the outset, I'd like to mention that we always use lauki/doodhi to make this and this dal is a regular in our house on every Thursday. Here are a few points about this dal that I'd like to mention: I used 2 1/2 cups of channa dal to make this. In step 3, I used 2 small chopped onions instead of 1/2 onion. I substituted the red bell pepper with a green one. In step 4, instead of 1 large tomato, I used 2 small ones. I used 2 1/2 cups of water in step 4. An additional ingredient I used in this recipe was 1/2 tsp. of cumin seeds{jeera}. I did not use cloves, curry leaves, parsley and the cinnamon stick. Instead of ginger and garlic pastes, I used 1/2 inch of chopped fresh ginger and 3 cloves of chopped garlic. I used 1 heaped tsp. of salt for this dal. Now, I notice there is a step or two missing in this recipe which was there when I first wrote it down. After step 5, here is what I did. In a separate pan, I heated 2 tbsps. of oil. Once it was hot, I tossed in 3 whole red chillies and 1/4 tsp. mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds stopped spluttering, I added one small onion to the pan and stir-fried it till the onion browned. Only after that, I added the chopped bell pepper to the pan, stirred it well about the pan and allowed it to saute for a few minutes until softened. After this, I did step 6. We "loved" the flavour of this dal and did not add any lemon juice to it while serving or while cooking it. This dal went very well with hot rotis right off the stove-top. Some of our friends' even had it with white long-grain Basmati rice. Everyone had a good time eating this. Thanks alot for a very nice recipe which will now on be a regular, every alternate Thursday in my house.