Instant Pot Dal and Rice is the most delicious Indian comfort food. Toor dal or Yellow Split Pigeon Pea cooked with onions, tomatoes and flavorful spices, along with pot-in-pot basmati rice for a complete meal. This is a vegan & gluten free Dal Fry!
Dal and Rice are the staple food in many indian homes. It is basically a lentil stew made with split pigeon peas served with rice Also, known as Varan Bhaat in Marathi.
What is Dal?
Dal is basically dried pulses. These dried pulses can be whole or split. Dal is also used as a term for various soups prepared with these dried pulses. It is also called Daal, Dahl or Dhal.
Dal is the main protein dish for many vegetarians, and hence a dish prepared almost everyday in an Indian home. Every region in Indian makes dal in different ways. In North India, it is made by tempering with cumin, curry leaves, onion and tomato. In South India, it is used to make sambar.
You will find it interesting that all of over India, dal is prepared in a stovetop pressure cooker. Hence it is a perfect dish to many in your electric pressure cooker or instant pot. Check out 10+ Instant Pot Lentils recipes.
Lentils used for Pressure Cooker Dal Fry
Toor dal or Yellow Split Pigeon Pea or Arhar Dal is the one of the most popular dal made in India. The cooked toor dal is also popularly called as Dal Tadka or Dal Fry. Dal tadka is very quick to prepare and can be ready in minutes. It is one of the easiest to make for a week night dinner.
I have also shared a different slightly sweeter preparation of toor dal in this delicious Gujarati Dal recipe.
Toor Dal Nutrition
Toor dal is from the legume family, and has a number of health benefits.
- It contains Folic acid, an important vitamin for all women.
- Toor dal contains protein and dietary fiber. Legumes such as toor dal are especially beneficial for vegetarians as they provide necessary protein.
- Toor dal also contain carbohydrates, which our body needs to generate energy. They contain complex carbohydrates, which are digested slowly by the body and are much better than simple carbohydrates.
How to make Indian Dal Fry in Instant Pot?
This recipe shows how to make Dal Fry in Instant Pot. The main difference in this preparation is that I made it as a one-pot recipe. Usually we boil the dal separately and then add the tadka in it. In this recipe, I cook the tadka in the pot before adding the dal and cook the dal along with the tadka.
Start with heating oil in the instant pot. Then add cumin seeds, curry leaves, asafoetida and garlic. Once the garlic is lightly browned, add chopped onions and cook for 2-3 minutes. Lightly brown the onions, then add chopped tomatoes and spices. Add toor dal and water. No need to soak the dal for this recipe.
The below steps show pot-in-pot basmati rice cooked along with the yellow lentils. More details about pot-in-pot below.
Pressure Cook for 5 minutes and then release the pressure 5 minutes after the beep. Garnish with cilantro and additional garam masala if you like a spice kick. Don’t worry if the dal does not look well mixed when you open the pot. Stir it well, and it will be delicious.
If you do soak the dal for 2 hours, you can reduce the cooking time to 3 minutes for toor dal.
A note about consistency – In North India, dal is preferred such that each grain can be seen and not all mushed up. However I hear in South India, the preference is to cook dal to a the consistency of sambar, where each grain is not visible and it is more like a smooth soup. For this consistency, pressure cook for 8-10 minutes at high pressure.
Dal Fry with Pot-in-Pot Basmati Rice
One of the big advantages of the Instant Pot is – the option to do Pot-in-Pot Cooking or PIP. This means being able to cook multiple things at a time, by also cooking in a small pot inside the main pot. To do pot-in-pot cooking, you need a tall trivet and stainless steel containers that you can use within the main pot.
Another important thing with pot-in-pot cooking is to consider the cooking time for the dishes you want to cook together. As an example, toor dal takes about 5 mins to cook at high pressure and basmati rice take about 4-6 mins at high pressure. Hence if I add rice pot-in-pot with these lentils, they would get cooked well. I would not cook brown rice along with these lentils, however they would work well with kidney beans that cook in 30 mins at high pressure.
Learn more about the instant pot pot-in-pot method with this comprehensive guide!
Once you add all ingredients for Dal in the instant pot, place the trivet and then the bowl of rice with water. This way they will both cook together. See pictures above for reference.
Enjoy dal served over basmati rice and some homemade ghee (this would make it non-vegan)!
Why you will love this Instant Pot Dal & Rice:
√ It is easy to make in the instant pot with very less active time needed.
√ Healthy, nutritious & protein rich
√ This dal be made ahead and freezes well.
√ Vegan & Gluten free
If you like this Dal Fry, you might like these below lentil recipes too:
Instant Pot Dal Tadka / Dal Fry with Basmati Rice
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Ghee or Oil
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- 1 Green Chili Pepper, sliced into 2 pieces or chopped
- 6 Curry Leaves (Kadi Patta)
- 1/4 teaspoon Asafoetida (Hing), optional, skip for gluten-free
- 3 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1/2 Onion, finely chopped
- 1 Tomato, finely chopped
- 1 cup Split Pigeon Pea (Toor dal), washed
- 3 cup Water
- Cilantro, to garnish
Spices
- 1/4 teaspoon Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon Red Chili powder (Mirchi powder)
- 1 teaspoon Salt
For Basmati Rice
- 1 cup Basmati Rice
- 1.25 cup Water
- 1 tablespoon Ghee or Oil, (optional)
- 1 teaspoon Salt, (optional)
Instructions
- Start the instant pot in sauté mode and heat the oil in it. Add cumin seeds, green chili, curry leaves, garlic and asafoetida.
- After the garlic turns light brown, add the chopped onions and cook for 2 minutes until the onions turn golden brown.
- Add tomato and spices and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Add the washed dal and water. Stir it all up.
- Place the trivet. In a bowl, add all ingredients for basmati rice and place it on top of the trivet. Close the lid with vent in sealing position.
- Change the instant pot setting to manual or pressure cook mode at high pressure for for 5 mins. After the instant pot beeps, let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes, then release the pressure manually (5 minute NPR).
- Using tongs, carefully take out the bowl of basmati rice. Then take out the trivet.
- Garnish with cilantro and stir. Optionally, sprinkle the juice of half a lemon. Dal tadka is ready to be served.
Video
Can we also add different dals in this recipe instead of just Toor dal? Because I know some people cook dal fry with 3 or more lentils mixed together. I am not sure with this recipe, but this also turned out well. Thank you.
hi, what type of bowl are you using for the rice? glass?
This is one of the most delicious recipes I have ever made and is so easy to throw together. I triple the recipe and freeze some of it, several days of amazing dinners.
Hi Erin -That’s fantastic! Delighted to hear it’s a favorite. Batch cooking and freezing is a smart idea for convenient and tasty meals. 🍽️🥳
Deliciously balanced flavours Bravo👏👏👏👏👏
Hi – Thank you 🙂
I love dal and have been seeking a good recipe to make at home – I’ve had some unpleasant failures in the past but am very glad I persevered and have found this one at last.
It is fantastic. Easy and quick and just spot on. Magic. Such good flavour and texture.
The rice was still a bit wet but I’m guessing that was down to my pot being silicone rather than metal.
I’ve bought some mung dal to try out another of your recipes and hope to end up with a bunch of great recipes so I can ring the changes.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Hi Parul – Glad you love the dal recipe! Happy cooking! 😊
This is a very delicious recipe. But now I want to teach a friend to make this recipe in her crockpot (slow cooker) since she’s afraid of the Instant Pot. Eventually I’m sure she’ll come around to trying the IP but I don’t want to force her.
Q1: So do you have some tips on converting your IP recipe to a slow cooker recipe?
Please share those tips ASAP as my friend is coming over tomorrow. 🙂 Thank you!!!
Hi Leni – Sorry for the late response. So glad that you enjoyed the dal.
To make this dal in a slow cooker, I would suggest to do the initial steps until adding tomatoes and spices in a pan on stovetop. Then add this along with dal and water to the slow cooker. Cook on high heat for 3 hours or until the dal is cooked and softened. Then do the finishing step of adding lemon juice and garnishing with cilantro. If you try the dal in the slow cooker, I would love to hear how it turns out!
I don’t normally leave reviews, but this turned out so delicious that I had to comment. It is such a simple recipe, easy to follow and tastes great! Definitely going to be in my recipe rotation from now on!
Hi Nadia – Thank you for the feedback! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe and found it simple to follow. It’s great to hear that it will become a regular in your recipe rotation!