This recipe is derived from Instant Pot Tomato Pappu from Vidhya’s Vegetarian Cooking. My modifications include doubling the portion size to allow for leftovers in addition to reordering the tempering step to the beginning in order to make it a one-pot dish.

It’s a very easy recipe that requires no fresh ingredients and comes together quickly- perfect for weeknights when I need something to eat but don’t have a lot of energy to make it.

Ingredients

Dal

• 1 cup toor dal
• 4 ripe tomatoes (chopped) or 1 15oz (400g) can diced tomatoes
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 tsp tumeric powder
• 2 tsp salt

Tempering

• 4 tsps oil
• 2 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 tsp urad dal
• 4 tsps cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1/2 tsp hing (asafoetida)
• Dried chili flakes or a fresh chili, adjusted to how much spicy you can handle.
• Curry leaves

Instructions

1. Put the instant pot on sauté mode and heat up the oil.
2. Once shimmering, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida and chili.
3. Cook, stirring frequently, for a minute or so until fragrant and/or lightly toasted.
4. Add toor dal, water, tomatoes, curry leaves, tumeric powder and salt to the instant pot and cook on high for 15 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally once completed.
5. While the dal is cooking in the instant pot, brew up some rice, bulgur, farro, or whatever grain feels right.