Sarika tells us that Dal Muradabadi is named after Prince Murad, son of Shah Jehan. It looks like he used to love Moong Dal a lot but got bored with similar tastes every day. That’s when the royal chef innovated the staple dal with magical toppings. An exclusive for Different Truths.

Uttar Pradesh has been in the news for some time, not for good reason. At times, I wonder how bad triumphs over good. The state has wonderful things to share, but most of the time it flashes in the news for crimes.

As the entire family is in the house during the pandemic, our food and lifestyle have changed with the rest of the world. No motivation is working after witnessing present scenario. As I say cooking is my stress buster, so try to find please in my kitchen. That is the time I try to focus on cooking and garnishing.

As the entire family is in the house during the pandemic, our food and lifestyle have changed with the rest of the world. No motivation is working after witnessing present scenario. As I say cooking is my stress buster, so try to find please in my kitchen. That is the time I try to focus on cooking and garnishing. So, this afternoon I decided to prepare a delicacy from Muradabad, a small city from Uttar Pradesh, known as the brass city of India.

Dal Muradabadi is one of the most interesting, innovative and lip-smacking culinary gem from Muradabad. The city is known for the origin of chaats and also believed that they introduced the concept of using raw onions as a garnish in most of the chaats.

…the royal chef innovated the staple dal with magical toppings (the chef was probably the unknown hero in the food industry) A mix and match of the varied toppings like raw onion, raw tomato, fried chillies, fresh coriander and green chutney.

History says Dal Muradabadi is named after Prince Murad, the son of Shah Jehan. It looks like he used to love Moong Dal a lot but got bored with similar tastes every day. That’s when the royal chef innovated the staple dal with magical toppings (the chef was probably the unknown hero in the food industry) A mix and match of the varied toppings like raw onion, raw tomato, fried chillies, fresh coriander and green chutney.

Dal Muradabadi

Ingredients

1 Cup yellow moong dal(yellow lentil)

1 tsp turmeric powder

Salt (according to taste)

¼ tsp of asafoetida (hing)

Instructions

1. Wash & soak the dal for at least 1 hour.
2. Boil dal with 2 cups of water along with salt, asafoetida, ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder
3. Once dal is cooked mix it nicely(you can pressure cook also 4 whistles)
4. Remove the dal from the fire, serve the dal into the serving bowls.
5. In the pan heat ghee, once the ghee is hot add red dry chillies, cumin seeds. When seeds start crackling switch off the flame and add a spoonful of tadka on each bowl of dal.
6. Sprinkle a pinch of cumin, red chilli powder, chaat masala along with a spoonful of chopped onion, tomato, ginger julians and green chilli.
7. To finish the garnish, sprinkle chopped coriander, a small cube of butter (optional) and squeeze the juice of a lemon on top.
8. Serve Muradabadi Moong Ki Dal as a chaat.

Photo by the author