This recipe for Moong Dal Recipe cooks so fast in your pressure cooker or Instant Pot, that it makes this hearty, protein-rich dal easy to make for weeknight dinners.
Why Make Moong Dal?
This Indian Moong Dal recipe allows you to harness the power of your pressure cooker to skip several stovetop steps, without compromising flavor.
There are many reasons why I like to use my pressure cooker to make lentils and beans.
- Fast - lentils made in less than an hour.
- Easy- pour and cook recipe.
- Protein Rich- 9 grams of protein per serving.
- Delicious - packed with delicious Indian spices.
- High in fiber- 7 grams of fiber per serving.
- Family-friendly - fun and familiar flavors your kids will love.
In the case of this moong dal, I wanted something that would be a simple pour and cook recipe.
What Is Moong Dal In English?
I've noticed when adapting some of my favorite Indian recipes, many people ask what the names of the recipes mean. So if that's something you're curious about, here you go.
In this recipe, I used WHOLE Moong dal, so it's those little green bullet looking things like the picture below 🙂
Split Moong dal is simply a mung bean that has been skinned and split so that they are flat and quicker to cook. They are little tiny yellow lentils.
Is Moong Dal Good For Health?
Moong Dal has many health benefits. Some of them include:
- High in fiber.
- It contains folic acid.
- Source of magnesium.
- Contains protein.
How Long Should Moong Dal Be Soaked?
Unlike beans, most lentils do not require pre-soaking. This is especially true when you cook them in the pressure cooker.
Since this is an Instant Pot Moong Dal recipe, skip the soaking.
How to Make Instant Pot Moong Dal
- Place water, dal, chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, ginger, garlic, turmeric, garam masala, salt, ground cumin, ground coriander, and cayenne pepper in your pressure cooker.
- Cook under pressure for 20 minutes, and let it sit for 10 minutes.
- Mix in the tamarind concentrate or lemon juice, and sugar and stir well.
- Garnish with cilantro or parsley and serve with either rice or Naans
What About Browning The Aromatics?
Normally this or any other Indian Dal is made by sautéing aromatics. The pressure cooker makes this unnecessary, mainly because the high temperatures allow the Maillard Reaction to occur without pre-browning.
If you'd like to learn more about this, check out my YouTube Video that talks in-depth about this.
So in this case, I just poured everything in and cooked it in one go and got a wonderful, creamy Instant Pot Moong Dal for dinner.
How to make Moong Dal in a Stove Top pressure cooker?
If you have a stovetop pressure cooker and learned to cook in India, you may be looking for how many whistles for dal. This can vary depending on a few things:
- How full your pot is.
- How high the heat is on your stovetop.
- The temperature of the contents before coming to pressure.
That being said, the general rule is that once the pot comes to pressure, you're looking at about 3 minutes per whistle. This is just a GENERAL rule, so you may need to modify as you experiment with this recipe.
Since this recipe calls for 10 minutes under high pressure, you'll cook pressure cooker Moong dal for about 3 whistles.
Tips and Tricks for Making Creamy Instant Pot Moong Dal
- You do not need to soak the moong dal ahead of time.
- Do not add the tamarind or lemon until after the moong dal is cooked. Tamarind retards the cooking of lentils, and your dal will not soften as needed.
- If you want really creamy dal--which trust me, you do--then use the back of your spoon to smoosh some of the cooked dal.
- If you love the taste of ghee (homemade ghee is wonderful!), heat some ghee and to the hot ghee, add some cumin seeds. When they splutter, pour this flavored ghee and cumin seeds on top of the dal right before serving. SO GOOD.
What Should I Eat Moong Dal With?
To make this a complete protein, you should consider eating this Instant Pot Moong Dal recipe with the following:
- Basmati pilau
- Chappatis
- Naan
- Mango Chutney
- As a side dish, you could add baingan bharta if you like eggplant, or Bhindi Masala if you are an okra fan.
- Finish off your meal with a little dessert, like carrot halva.
Want More Indian Instant Pot Recipes?
If you're looking for a fast, easy, delicious, and nutritious weeknight meal idea, try this Instant Pot Moong Dal Recipe. You'll love how quickly it comes together.
Equipment
Ingredients
For Dal
- 4 cups (1 l) Water
- 1 cup whole moong dal, (the green kind)
- 1 cup (1) Onion, diced
- 1 cup Tomatoes, diced
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) Minced Ginger
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) Garlic
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Turmeric
- 1/2-1 teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Cayenne Pepper, adjust to taste
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Garam Masala
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Kosher Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Ground Cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Ground Coriander
For Finishing
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Tamarind Concentrate
- 2 (2) lemons, juiced
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Sugar , Or Other Sweetener Equivalent
- 1/4 cup (4 g) Chopped Cilantro or Parsley
Instructions
- Place water, dal, chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, ginger, garlic, turmeric, garam masala, salt, ground cumin, ground coriander, and cayenne pepper in your pressure cooker.
- Secure the lid on the pot. Set the Instant Pot at High pressure for 20 minutes. When cook time is complete, let pot release pressure naturally for 10 minutes, and then release all remaining pressure.
- Mix in the tamarind concentrate or lemon juice, and sugar and stir well.
- Garnish with cilantro or parsely and serve with either rice or Naans
- This recipe can easily be doubled. Moong dal freezes very well, so it's great for meal prep and freezer meals.
- You do not need to soak the moong dal ahead of time.
- Do not add the tamarind or lemon until after the moong dal is cooked. Tamarind retards the cooking of lentils, and your dal will not soften as needed.
- If you want really creamy dal--which trust me, you do--then use the back of your spoon to smoosh some of the cooked dal.
- If you love the taste of ghee (homemade ghee is wonderful!), heat some ghee and to the hot ghee, add some cumin seeds. When they splutter, pour this flavored ghee and cumin seeds on top of the dal right before serving. SO GOOD.
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Nutrition
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Wendy Woodward
Thank you for a simple, tasty moong dahl recipe! I used a can of drained Rotel for the tomatoes, and smoked paprika for the cayenne, and no tamarind (I don't have any) or sugar, but the result was entirely to our tastes! The guy requested that this be put into 'the rotation'.
Tracy
So easy and delicious! A little bit salty for my taste so in future will do less of that but this was so yum. I had struggled to cook mung beans properly and the pressure cooker did the job perfectly.
Mari
Amazing
Mari
This is such an easy, delicious recipe! I have a big bag of moong dal and didn't know what else to do with it. My son (11) and I love Indian spices. When I came home from work yesterday, he had eaten both the leftover bowls of this soup! I made a double batch just now, and he was excited to have some for lunch today. This is definitely added to my "go-to recipe" list.
The only alterations I did, is use vegetable broth, instead of water for cooking, and always add a Bay leaf to the pot. It did come out thicker than the photo, but my son likes thicker soups anyways, so I left it as is. It is delicious regardless!
Mari
Forgot to give stars
FIVE stars!
Alida
This one pot Indian moong dahl recipe is amazing. I was searching for a recipe to cut down on the prep work and time for the gravy and seasoning, but did not lose the richness of flavor. I cook a fair amount of Indian recipes, always vegetarian. I am not always in the mood for the long prep time. I am very excited to try your other recipes. Your website is really first rate. The recipes are clear and your commentaries are relevant and helpful. I must say I had to google "sleever". Well, I have had a lapband for over 10 years, and have kept off 100+ pounds. LOL
Alida
The rating is five star for this recipe. 😉
URVASHI PITRE
Thank you for your encouragement and your kind words! Glad you are here.
Ruth Bownes
Delicious! Thanks for another great recipe
URVASHI PITRE
Yay! I’m so glad to hear that!
Urvi
Hi,
I am a new IP user and tried this today. I added the 4 cups of water per the instructions. When the time was done, i opened the IP and found that the daal was still "crunchy" and the bottom burned. The flavor was off too - likely due to the burn.
Any idea what I did wrong?
Thanks
URVASHI PITRE
That sounds like a problem with your seal. Often if the seal isn’t on tight you get undercooked food and burns. Ply with the gasket which is not on tight and it should fix it.
D eb
Can you substitute any lentil or split pea for this recipe?
URVASHI PITRE
So technically yes. The issue is I don't know about water proportions with the various dals. However worst case is that you'll have a little more liquid than you'd intended but I know it will still taste yummy.
babloo
thank you so much for sharing such a lovely recipe!