Tarka Dal Recipe: Red Lentil Dal With a Spiced Tempering

Tarka dal is soft, simmered lentils finished with a tarka: whole spices, garlic and dried red chillies sizzled in hot oil or ghee and poured over just before serving. This version uses red split lentils (masoor dal), which need no soaking, serves 4 and takes about 40 minutes. Below: the recipe, tarka tips, texture, serving and storage.

What is tarka dal?

Dal (also dhal) is "a South Asian dish made from lentils or other pulses", says Oxford Learner's Dictionaries; our guide to types of lentils and pulses explains the names. A tarka (tadka, or tempering) is whole spices, sometimes with dried chillies, cooked briefly in hot oil or ghee. Indian cooks temper spices at the start of some dishes, but for tarka dal it comes at the end, poured over just before serving, as the tadka section of our Indian spice blends guide explains, and it often carries garlic too.

Tarka and tadka are two spellings of the Hindi taṛkā, so you will also see tadka dal, dal tadka or tarka dhal. Our Sara red split lentils are Canadian, small and skinless, so they simmer to a soft, creamy dal in 15–20 minutes.

Tarka dal recipe (serves 4)

Serves: 4 as a main course with rice or bread. Prep: 10 minutes. Cook: about 30 minutes. Total: about 40 minutes, with no soaking. You need a medium saucepan and a small pan for the tarka.

Ingredients

For the dal:

• 250g red split lentils (masoor dal)
• 900ml water, plus a little hot water to loosen
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric, such as Greenfields Turmeric Powder
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon garam masala

For the tarka:

• 3 tablespoons vegetable or sunflower oil, or ghee
• ¼–½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi), optional; they are naturally bitter, so start with less
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds or ground cumin
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced, or about 1 tablespoon of frozen crushed garlic such as Taj Crushed Garlic cubes
• 2–3 bullet chillies (whole dried red chillies)
• 8–10 curry leaves: Greenfields Dried Curry Leaves, or Taj frozen curry leaves used as the pack directs

To serve: chopped fresh coriander and lemon wedges (optional).

Method

1. Rinse the lentils. Rinse them in a sieve under cold running water until the water runs clear. They need no soaking.
2. Simmer. Put the lentils, water and turmeric in the saucepan and bring to the boil. Skim off any foam in the first few minutes, then part-cover and simmer gently for 15–20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the lentils are soft and collapsing.
3. Season. Stir in the salt and garam masala, plus a splash of hot water if the dal is thicker than you like. Simmer for 2–3 minutes more, then keep it on the lowest heat.
4. Start the tarka. Heat the oil or ghee in the small pan over a medium-high heat. Add the fenugreek and the cumin seeds, if using, and let them sizzle for a few seconds, until a shade darker.
5. Add the garlic. Fry, stirring, for about 1 minute, until pale golden. Frozen garlic goes in straight from frozen (our product page; follow the pack), but its ice makes hot oil spit: turn the heat to medium, spoon it in gently, stand back and allow a little longer.
6. Add the chillies and curry leaves. Stand back, as the leaves spit, and fry briefly, until the chillies darken and the leaves crisp. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the ground cumin, if using: it needs only a few seconds.
7. Pour and serve. Pour the sizzling tarka over the dal and cover the pan for a minute to hold in the aroma. Scatter with coriander and serve with lemon wedges.

Why these steps: our red lentil page advises adding salt and acidic ingredients near the end, so the lentils stay tender; older lentils can take a little longer. Garam masala goes in late so its aroma stays fresh (see our garam masala guide), and covering the pot follows Madhur Jaffrey's dal on MasterClass.

Allergens: our red split lentils contain none of the 14 major allergens but may contain traces of other pulses and cereals containing gluten. Taj Crushed Garlic may contain celery and peanuts; Taj frozen curry leaves may contain wheat (gluten), milk, nuts, peanuts, sesame and soya. Ghee contains milk. Greenfields says some of its blends are made in a facility that also handles sesame, mustard and celery, so check every label if you are cooking for someone with an allergy.

How to get the tarka right

• Go in order of cooking time. Food writer Monica Bhide adds the spices that need longest first: cumin seeds before chopped garlic, "which could burn if added earlier". Dried chillies darken in a few seconds in Madhur Jaffrey's recipe, and curry leaves crisp quickly. Ground spices brown in just a few seconds, Milk Street found, and Andrea Nguyen of Viet World Kitchen stirs hers in off the heat.
• Don't walk away. The tarka takes a minute or two, so have everything ready. Bhide warns that there is no saving a burnt tadka: if the garlic turns dark brown or smells acrid, start again.
• Expect spitting. Curry leaves and frozen garlic spit in hot oil; Milk Street found a small saucepan with high sides helped prevent splatter.
• Variations: for an onion tarka, fry a thinly sliced onion until golden before the spices go in, as in the simple tarka dal in our lentils guide. Our curry leaf pages pair the leaves with mustard seeds: add ½ teaspoon with the fenugreek if you like, but mustard is one of the 14 regulated allergens (Food Standards Agency).

How thick should dal be?

That is up to you. Cookbook author Torie True says you may prefer it soupy or as thick as porridge, and allows 300–400ml of water per 100g of lentils; this recipe's 900ml for 250g sits in the middle. A looser dal "works so well poured over a little rice", she adds, while a thicker one is easier to scoop up with bread. Dal thickens as it stands, too: Andrea Nguyen warns that hers is "bound to thicken a lot" overnight. Loosen it with hot water, a splash at a time, or simmer it uncovered for a few minutes, stirring, to thicken it.

What to serve with tarka dal

Rice is the classic partner. In her Brick Lane Cookbook, Dina Begum calls her household's tarka dhal "true Bangladeshi comfort food" and finds it "So good poured over some steamed basmati rice". Our sella basmati guide suggests ordinary basmati for a softer grain with dal. For bread, try frozen paratha, cooked as its pack directs, or chapati, and for an Indian spread add our chana masala and bhindi masala.

If you cook rice ahead, the FSA's advice on rice is to chill leftovers "as quickly as possible, ideally within one hour", keep them in the fridge "for no more than one day until reheating" and never reheat rice more than once.

Shorbat adas: tarka dal's Middle Eastern cousin

The same lentils make shorbat adas, a smooth Middle Eastern soup simmered with onion, garlic and cumin, blended and sharpened with lemon. In a Gulf recipe reprinted by AramcoWorld, Sarah al-Hamad notes that it is also known as shorbat al-dal and that variations exist "throughout the Indian subcontinent". The finish sets them apart: lemon and toasted pitta for the soup, a sizzling tarka for dal.

How to store, freeze and reheat tarka dal

• Fridge: cool it, refrigerate it within two hours and eat it within 48 hours, or freeze it, as the Food Standards Agency (FSA) advises.
• Freezer: cool it, divide it into portions and label them, with your freezer at around -18°C, as the FSA's freezing advice says; Love Food Hate Waste gives its lentil dahl 3 months. Freeze rice separately, within an hour of cooking.
• Defrost and reheat: defrost it in the fridge overnight, or in the microwave on the defrost setting just before reheating, and use it within 24 hours. Reheat it only once, stirring, until steaming hot throughout, adding a splash of water.
• Freshen it up: for the best flavour, pour a small fresh tarka over the reheated dal.

You'll find red lentils in our pulses, rice and grains range, and turmeric, cumin and bullet chillies in spices and herbs.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between tarka dal and dal tadka?

None: they are the same dish, with the words swapped. Tarka and tadka are two spellings of the Hindi taṛkā: whole spices, sometimes with dried chillies, cooked briefly in hot oil or ghee. So you will also see tadka dal, dal tarka and tarka dhal.

Do you need to soak red lentils for dal?

No. Red split lentils need only a rinse until the water runs clear, as our product page says, and Diabetes UK names lentils and split peas as the dried pulses that don't need soaking. Being skinned and split, they cook in about 15–20 minutes, though older lentils can take a little longer.

Can I use ground cumin instead of cumin seeds?

Yes: about 1 teaspoon here, but change the timing. Cumin seeds go into the hot oil first and sizzle for a few seconds; ground cumin goes in last, off the heat, just before you pour, because ground spices need only a few seconds and can scorch. Our cumin pages say briefly frying ground cumin brings out its flavour.

Can you freeze tarka dal?

Yes. Cool it, portion it, label it and freeze it, as the FSA advises; Love Food Hate Waste gives its lentil dahl 3 months in the freezer. Defrost it in the fridge, use it within 24 hours and reheat it only once, stirring, until steaming hot throughout. Add a splash of water and a fresh tarka.

Is tarka dal spicy?

Only as spicy as you make it. Most of the heat comes from the dried chillies: our bullet chillies are hot, and their product page suggests leaving them whole for a milder flavour or breaking them open for more heat. Use one, or none, for a gentle dal. Garam masala is warming rather than chilli-hot.