Soft yellow dal under a slick of smoking ghee, garlic and red chilli, with dark ragi rotis rolled thin to mop the bowl clean.
Ingredients
From the TrooFoodz pantry
- Sprouted Ragi Flour 2 cups
Fresh
- Toor dal 3/4 cup
- Split yellow moong dal 1/4 cup
- Onion, finely chopped 1
- Tomatoes, chopped 2
- Garlic, sliced thin 8 cloves
- Ginger, grated 1 tbsp
- Dried red chillies 3
- Cumin seeds 1 1/2 tsp
- Asafoetida 1/4 tsp
- Turmeric 3/4 tsp
- Kashmiri chilli powder 1 tsp
- Ghee 4 tbsp
- Salt 1 3/4 tsp
- Hot water 1 1/4 cups (for the dough)
- Coriander leaves, chopped 3 tbsp
Method
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Cook the dal loose
Pressure cook both dals with turmeric and 3 cups water for four whistles, then whisk hard for 30 seconds. It should pour off a ladle in a ribbon, not a lump.
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Build the masala
Fry the onion in 2 tbsp ghee until golden at the edges, add ginger and half the garlic, then the tomatoes and salt and cook until they collapse and the fat shows.
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Simmer together
Add the dal, thin with hot water and simmer 10 minutes on low so the lentils and masala stop tasting like two separate things.
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Make a soft dough
Pour hot water over the Sprouted Ragi Flour with a pinch of salt, knead warm for four minutes until it stops cracking, and keep covered.
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Roll between sheets
Roll 16 cm rotis between two sheets of parchment — ragi dough will not survive a dusted board and a heavy hand.
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Cook and puff
Cook each roti one minute a side on a hot tawa, then press the edges with a cloth until it domes. Smear with ghee and stack under a cloth.
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Pour the tadka
Heat the last 2 tbsp ghee until it shimmers, add cumin, the remaining garlic and the broken chillies, and the moment the garlic turns gold pour it, still hissing, over the dal with the chilli powder and coriander.
Why this works
Whisking the cooked dal breaks the softened lentils into a smooth emulsion that carries fat and spice evenly. The tadka goes on last and hot because the flavour compounds in cumin and garlic are fat-soluble and volatile — poured over at temperature, they bloom into the dal instead of simmering away.
Make it your own
- Toor dal → Masoor dal Cooks in half the time and gives a softer, looser dal.
- Ghee → Sesame oil Dairy-free with a darker, toastier tadka.
- Sprouted Ragi Flour → Sprouted Jowar Flour Paler and milder roti; roll it a little thicker.
