Restaurant Style Dal Makhani Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Dal Makhani, a cream and butter rich popular dal variety in India. Black Urad dal and Rajma are cooked with rich butter and cream based tomato gravy. Relish with any Indian Flat breads like Roti/ Naan/ Paratha etc or with Jeera rice. Learn here how to make this Dal Makhani with step by step pictures and instructions.

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 1

Soaking Time 8

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Reading Time: 6 minutes

Dal Makhani, often referred to “Maa Ki Dal” (Mother of all Dal varieties). Yes, the statement is absolutely true. The texture, flavour, taste is irresistible. It is one of the most popular Punjabi dish. No doubt, Dal Makhani is calorie rich dish. But a proper schedule of exercise should be healthy to burn the calories rather than taking low calorie food. So enjoy the calorie rich food making sure you are working out to burn the extra calories. The primary ingredients of Dal Makhani is Whole Black Urid Dal and Red kidney beans. We can also substitute the kidney beans with channa dal also.

Conventional way of cooking this yummy dish is a time consuming process which requires slow cooking of the dal and the gravy for atleast 6-8 hours. The texture and the flavour will be perfect if we cook in low flame for atleast 2-3 hours. But nowadays we should be cautious of the fuel and time and hence we can prepare it quickly doing some little tricks. I have shared below some of the tricks to get this dish in actual texture and taste within an hour itself. Lets see the recipe now…

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Recipe Card for Dal Makhani

Instructions with Step by Step Pictures:

Wash and soak the whole urid dal and the rajma in water overnight. In the morning drain the soaked water and add 4 cups of fresh water and pressure cook the dals with salt and turmeric powder. Keep the flame and allow the first whistle, then make the flame low and allow 5 more whistles. Slow cooking of the dals make it cook nicely.

Drain the water from the cooked dal and keep it aside as we are going to use it later. Do not discard the water. The cooked water not only gives the texture but also flavour to the dish.

Heat 2 tablespoon of butter and add the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom and chopped ginger and saute them for a minute. Then add onions along with a pinch of salt and cook till the onions are translucent.

I have already made puree out of the tomatoes and kept ready. So now, I am going to add the tomato puree to the pan. Keep the flame medium and cook the tomato puree for atleast 10 minutes. After 10 minutes when the tomato puree gets cooked and nicely blended with the spices add the strained dal water to the pan and add red chilli powder and mix well and again cook everything in low flame for another 5 minutes. The strained water adds the texture and flavour to the dish

Meanwhile, take 2 tablespoon of the cooked dal in a mixer and grind it to a nice paste. This is the trick we need to use. This paste brings a thick consistency to the gravy and also gives a nice texture.

Add the ground dal paste to the dal mixture in the pan and mix well. Now, add the remaining butter and again cook the dal in low flame.

Then its time to add the kasoori methi. Crush the kasoori methi between your palms and add it to the pan and mix well. Finally add the cooked urid dal and the rajma and mix well. Adjust the salt if needed.

Cover the pan and cook the dal in low flame for another 20 minutes. Add fresh cream and stir well. Keep in flame for another couple of minutes. Finally garnish with chopped coriander leaves and remove from flame