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 foods in many Indian homes. It is basically a lentil stew made with split pigeon peas and served with rice. It is 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, it is a dish prepared almost every day in an Indian home. Every region in India makes dal in different ways. In North India, it is made by tempering it 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 for 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 one of the most popular dal made in India. The cooked toor dal is also popularly called 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 weeknight 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 the necessary protein.
- Toor dal also contains 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 are 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 so that each grain can be seen and not all mushed up. However, I know in South India that, the preference is to cook dal to a 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 cook pot-in-pot, 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 takes about 4-6 mins at high pressure. Hence, if I add rice pot-in-pot with these lentils, they will cook 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 the 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 the 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 little 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.
Question: Mine came out delish! Only one thing I’m curious about it had a slight bitter taste to it ? Is that from turmeric ?
Hi Anna – Good to hear you enjoyed the dal. I wonder if the cumin seeds got a bit overcooked, which can make them bitter. Some dals do add a little sugar, which can help to counter the bitter taste. I hope that helps!
We loved this recipe!! So healthy and delicious! You are a fantastic cook! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Worthy of a 5 star review! This recipe is amazing. I’ve been searching for a dal fry recipe that didn’t taste like a bland, Americanized version of Indian cooking. This is it! This dal fry is rich, flavorful comfort food that’s ready in less than 15 minutes. I ate this on its own without rice or naan for a full taste test and had to resist the strong urge to eat the entire bowl! Thank you for posting my new favorite recipe – it’s perfect.
Amazing recipe ! Thank you so much !
I have no idea how this recipe got good reviews or what I could have done wrong. I followed the instructions to a tee, and the dal and rice were completely uncooked. as I was preparing it, I have to say I was suspicious of the short cook time. Just five minutes in the IP and 1.25 cups of water to cook both dal and rice? Didn’t work at all for me and I had to consult another yellow dal recipe, which called for three cups of water and 10 minutes.
Hi Elissa – Did you miss the 3 cups of water in the main ingredients section? The 1.25 cup of water was for the pot-in-pot rice and 3 cups for the dal.
This is my go to recipe for dal tadka. My family loves it and its easy and nutritious. I am South Indian so we add more water and cook for more time to get a more soup like consistency. I also add in spinach at the end for extra nutrition, and a bit of tadka at the end with more onions and grated coconut. It gives such a silky flavor. This easy recipe is a comfort meal at our home with some achar and pappadum.
Thanks Meeta for the recipes. Where can I get the pits for the rice that fits in an instant pot ?
Thanks
Esther
Hi Esther – I got mine from Amazon. Here I have shared all the useful accessories for the instant pot.
Tried a few recipes on piping hot curry and to be honest, I don’t think I’ve fallen on any. Just brilliant. I’ve always been a rubbish cook but thank you, I’ve been able to make some amazing dishes, including this one!
Thank you!
Hey Anju – So glad you have been enjoying the recipes. Thank you for sharing back!
Best daal I’ve ever made 🙂 Very delicious. Thanks for measuring everything and not leaving it to my poor “judgement”.
This was a very easy recipe, thanks for sharing. If I am double the quantity, would I also double the cooking time?
Hi Sundus – The cooking time will remain the same even if you double the ingredients. Thanks for sharing back your review!
Cooking time stays same thanks for posting that in the comments ! I didn’t know what to do and chanced it and kept cooking time same ! Phew
Delicious recipe well explained. Thanks for sharing.