Kerala Style Parippu – Creamy red lentils cooked with coconut milk and ground spices. Delicious to serve with steamed rice.
Today under ‘Dazzling Dals’ theme, I made a delicious Kerala Style Parippu (aka dal). Lentils are an essential part of our daily meal, so I keep looking for new ways to cook with dal. This tastes amazing served with steamed rice and makes for a comforting and homey meal.
Lentils/ Dal in India:
Each state and region in India have different dal recipes. There are probably thousands of ways of cooking dal and each household has their own signature way of making it.
Parippu | Kerala Style Dal:
Parippu means dal in Malayalam. Kerala is a coastal state and has abundance of coconut trees. So naturally coconut is one of the most used ingredients in their cuisine. Coconut oil and coconut milk is used very frequently in the dishes.
This recipe for Kerala Parippu is from a cookbook called ‘The Food of India’. I have had that book for more than a dozen years and have made this dish many many times. 
Ingredients for Kerala Style Dal:
The main ingredient in this recipe is Red Lentils aka Masoor dal. The advantage of these lentils is that they cook really fast. There is no need to soak them before cooking.
The next ingredient is Coconut Milk. Lentils are cooked in a mixture of water and coconut milk. This gives the dish a creamy texture with slight sweetness.
The best part of the dish is the final tempering with fried onions and curry leaves – makes the dish extra special.
Quick & Easy Vegan dish:
This is a simple, everyday lentil dish that tastes amazing with steamed rice. It takes about 30 minutes of cooking time with about 5 minutes of hands-on time.
Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 88. Also sending this to Valli’s ‘Cooking from Cookbook Challenge’ – May – Week 4.
Kerala Style Dal (Parippu)
Ingredients
For the Dal:
- 1 cup Masoor Dal (Red Lentils)
- 1 Onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 Tomato, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 2~3 Green Chilies, slit
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp Ground Cumin
- ½ tsp Ground Coriander
For Tempering:
- 2 tsp Oil
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- ½ tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 Medium Onion, finely chopped
- 8~10 curry leaves
Instructions
Cook Dal:
- In a heavy bottomed saucepan; combine lentils with 2 cups of water. Add the onion, tomato, coconut milk, green chilies, turmeric, ground cumin and coriander; bring to a boil.
- Simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are cooked and are very tender and mushy, it will take about 25~30 minutes. Add more water, if all the water evaporates.
Make Tempering:
- Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the cumin and mustard seeds and once they start to splutter, add the onions and curry leaves. Cook till the onions are golden brown.
- Pour the tempering into the simmering lentils. Season with salt to taste and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve!!
Priya Suresh
Simply love these sort of thick and vegan parippu in my meal. One of my comforting food i must say here. Inviting dal Pavani, i dont mind eating this dal everyday. Lovely.
Usha
This is one of the dals I shortlisted for this theme. Due to lack of time because of sudden travel plans, made a tried and tested recipe.
Vaishali
Interesting daal , while boiling the daal , I am
Sure one can use a pressure cooker to speed up cooking . Also in the ingredients you have mentioned cauliflower , but I am wondering when to use , seems you have missed mentioning it .
cookshideout
Yes Vaishali, this dal can definitely be made in the pressure cooker. Regarding Cauliflower, that was a typo and I fixed it. Thank you for letting me know.
Varada
Coconut milk, onion and tomato gravy is very unique. Your pictures are beautiful.
Rafeeda - The Big Sweet Tooth
Even in Kerala, the preparation of dal is different. This to me feels like a south style preparation, because we don’t use much cumin into our Malabar style cooking, it’s always fennel or aniseed, and instead of coconut milk, it’s always a fresh or roasted coconut paste. It’s funny how within a state, thousands of variations are available. This is surely a very easy curry to make, must try for a lazy lunch…
Srivalli
Such a delightful Dal Pavani. I love kerala food and I have made Kerala Sambar that had so much coconut added. We enjoyed that meal so much. I am sure this would be excellent too!
Sandhiya
Dals are such a versatile dishes, right?? Even with the simple tempering it would taste amazing. Love the pictures, they are so inviting !!!
Mayuri Patel
An interesting option to add coconut milk to a dal. Looks delicious. Amazing how many ways we can prepare dal.
Harini
Adding coconut milk to dal sounds very interesting. Shall try this right away.
Sowmya
Coconut milk in dal would be so rich and creamy. Bookmarking this to try asap!
Renu
Coconut milk in dal, never tried…the dal looks delicious and comforting
farah
mmmmm coconut milk in lentils! i usually add coconut milk whe im makin spinach with lentils…..guess any lentil it goes well with…….lovely clicks…….
sapana
I am too skeptical to add coconut in my dals and always think we won’t like it. But your dal looks very inviting, so I shall try it soon.
themadscientistskitchen
Delicious daal. I will live the bowl to eat just plain.
Chef Mireille
I love dals made with coconut milk – so creamy – would love this one
mehul
lovely nice recipe