Indian Dal Tadka / Dal Fry with Basmati Rice – Instant Pot Pressure Cooker

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.

Watch How to Make Indian Dal Tadka / Dal Fry with Basmati Rice

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:

• Green Moong Dal
• Yellow Moong Dal Tadka
• Madras Lentils
• Brown Lentils (Whole Masoor Dal)