Sri Lankan Dal Mallum is a simple everyday lentil dish that is hearty, comforting and delicious.
I am starting this year's Blogging Marathon with 'Sinhalese Cuisine' as the theme. Sri Lankan cuisine sounds very exotic with influences from South Indian, Indonesian, Dutch and other South east Asian cuisines. But for the first day I have a very simple and delicious Sri Lankan Dal Mallum recipe.
While I was looking for Sri Lankan recipes to make, I found quite a few dishes that sounded absolutely delicious and inviting. But when I saw this everyday lentil dish on My Sri Lankan recipes. Red Lentils are cooked with onion, garlic and grated coconut to make this comforting and delicious dish.
My whole family loves lentils including the kids but the way I make dal is slightly different from this Sri Lankan version. I usually add some tomatoes or tamarind to make the dal taste tangy. So this dish with just onions and grated coconut sounded too bland in theory. But I shouldn't have worried about it.
The dish turned out absolutely delicious. Lentils are cooked along with onion, garlic and chilies -- which impart lot of flavor to the dal. Also adding some fried onions afterwards along with grated coconut makes this dish irresistible. My kids loved it. It is a great side dish to serve with either rice or bread.
Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 84.
Sri Lankan Dal Mallum
Ingredients
- 1 cup Red Lentils
- 1 Large Red Onion, thinly sliced
- 2 Garlic cloves, finely minced
- 2 Green Chilies, slit in half
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp Oil
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- 8~10 curry leaves
- ½ tsp Red Chili powder
- 3 tbsp Fresh or dry coconut, grated
- To taste salt
Instructions
- In a medium saute pan, combine red lentils, 2 cups water, half of the chopped onion, green chilies and turmeric. Bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the lentils are tender, but not mushy. Drain the lentils, if needed.
- Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds; once the seeds start to splutter, add curry leaves and the remaining chopped onions. Cook till the onions are translucent.
- Add the cooked dal, red chili powder, salt and grated coconut. Mix well and cook for 3~4 minutes. Serve hot with rice or bread.
Mrs TJ
Nice dish.. we too make a kootu very similar to this.. as you have said we do add tomatoes and pressure cook the lentils.. a good twist to the original version!
Usha
Such a comforting dal. Addition if coconut is interesting
Sandhya Ramakrishnan
Love this variation of our dal with coconut. It looks wonderful and love the flavors.
Srivalli
Lovely dish and I too enjoyed reading through the cuisine..hopefully I should be able to cook..love your setup pavani..
Padmajha PJ
Such a simple dish! My kids will love it too. Like the addition of fried onions and grated coconut!
Priya Suresh
Such a simple and comforting dal, and the addition of coconut makes this dal mallum more interesting.
Jayashree
A dry preparation with dal is something new to me. Looks good.
Kalyani
simple flavours. amazing dish ! well done, Pavani..
Harini
A very comforting dal version.
Chef Mireille
with coconut and my fave lentil - looks delicious
Nisha Ramesh
This sounds so interesting Pavani. I love mung dhal and I would relish it.
Sanat Biswal
Nice Recipe