Bengali moong dal with bitter melons
An essential summer special bengali yellow lentils wih bitter melons and bottlegourd is healthy and nutritious dish that can keep you cool this summer
Recipe Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Yellow lentils, Moong Dal
- 1 cup Bitter gourd / bitter melons cut into roundels
- 1 cup Bottle gourd, cut into big chunks
- 1/4 cup Freshly grated coconut
- Ghee as required
- Salt and sugar as per taste
- 1 tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1 tsp Radhuni seeds / wild celery seeds lightly roasted
- 2-3 Dried Red Chillies
- 1 tbsp Ginger paste
- 3-4 tbsp Mustard oil
- 1-2 Bay leaves / Tej patta
Recipe Instructions
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Wash the lentils and drain the water properly. In a kadhai roast the lentils till lightly brown. At first it will be little difficult as the lentils will be all wet, but keep on doing this on low heat. Once all the moisture evaporates, increase the heat very slightly and roast it. Add one teaspoon of ghee while doing this.
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Remove the lentils and in the same kadhai add mustard oil. Bring it to smoking hot, and lightly fry the roundels of bitter gourd. Take care not to fry them crispy or golden. Take them out.
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Meanwhile in a pressure cooker, bring 2 cups of water to boil and add fried moong dal and chunks of bottle gourd, little oil, one teaspoon of ginger paste, turmeric powder and salt. Pressure cook on low heat upto one whistle only. Add more warm water to get the desired consistency of dal.
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In the kadhai, warm up little more ghee. Temper it with cumin seeds, roased radhuni seed (you can powder it also, if you want to) , dried red chillies. Add ginger paste and saute it lightly. Add grated coconut and roast it lightly till nice aroma comes.
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Add first the bottle gourd pieces, then lightly mash the dal and add it to the kadhai. Adjust the seasonings. Add the bitter gourds and let the dal cook on low heat for sometime more till the bitter gourds are soft.
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Serve this bengali tetor dal with rice.