Wholesome Green Moong Dal made in an Instant Pot or a Stovetop Pressure Cooker. This is a delicious creamy lentil soup, that is so easy and quick to make in a pressure cooker. Very nutritious with lots of protein and perfect for a cold evening.
This is a North Indian style recipe for green moong dal, also known as sabut moong dal. Growing up this used to be made almost every week for dinner. We always had a veggie curry and a lentil or legume, along with roti (handmade Indian flatbread) for dinner. Some days we would have rice, but not every day. This is a very typical north indian dinner.
If you don’t have green moong dal in your pantry, check out other popular North Indian lentil soups – Chana Dal, Moong Dal Fry.
How to make Green Moong Lentils in Pressure Cooker?
I do not soak these lentils. You can if you have planned well, and reduce the cooking time to 10 minutes. I usually don’t plan much for lentils, as I know that I can easily and quickly cook them in the pressure cooker.
Follow the same process as in the video when cooking on a stovetop pressure cooker. Cook on high flame for 2 whistles and then change to medium-low flame and let it cook for another 8 minutes.
If you plan to enjoy this as a soup, you can add veggies like carrot, sweet potato to celery along with the lentils before you pressure cook. Stir spinach or kale at the end to make this a hearty vegetable lentil soup.
You can also double this recipe with the same cooking time. The pressure cooker will just take longer to come to pressure. This lentil also freezes well, so it is great for meal prep.
Here is a quick video to cook green moong lentils in an instant pot:
Enjoy this easy and delicious lentil soup.
If you like this recipe, you might like the below Indian favorites made in a pressure cooker:
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Wholesome Green Moong lentils simmered in onion-tomato gravy made in Instant Pot. A protein rich dish, enjoy as a lentil soup along with a side of rice.
- 1 cup Green Gram Lentils (Green Moong Dal) whole, rinsed (1 cup = 250 ml)
- 1 tbsp Ghee or Oil
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- 1 Green Chili Pepper chopped (optional)
- 1/2 tbsp Ginger minced or paste
- 1/2 tbsp Garlic minced or paste
- 1 Onion medium, diced
- 2 Tomato medium, chopped
- 3 cup Water
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- Cilantro to garnish
- 1/4 tsp Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 1 tsp Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- 1/2 tsp Cayenne or Red chili powder
- 1 tsp Garam Masala
- 1 tsp Salt
Start the instant pot in SAUTE mode and heat oil in it. Add cumin seeds, green chili and saute for 30 seconds.
Add onions, ginger and garlic. Saute for 1 minute.
Add chopped tomato, spices and stir.
Add lentils and water. Stir well. Press CANCEL and close the instant pot lid with vent in sealing position.
Press MANUAL or Pressure Cook mode for 15 minutes. When the instant pot beeps, let the pressure release naturally (NPR).
Open the lid and add lime juice and cilantro. Stir and green moong dal is ready to be served.
Heat oil in the pressure cooker on medium-high flame. Add cumin seeds, green chili and saute for 30 seconds.
Add onions, ginger and garlic. Saute for 3 minute.
Add chopped tomato, spices and stir.
Add lentils and water. Stir well.
Cover the lid, turn the heat on high flame and pressure cook it until your hear two whistles. Now reduce the flame to medium and pressure cook it for another 8 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally.
Open the lid and add lime juice and cilantro. Stir and green moong dal is ready to be served.
- To reduce spice, skip the green chili and reduce garam masala to 1/2 tsp.
- This recipe can be doubled with no change in cooking time.
- Vegan variation: Use oil when tempering in step 1.
- This recipe was created in a 6qt Instant Pot DUO60 Multi-use Pressure Cooker.
Note: Nutrition values are my best estimates. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.
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We love this recipe, but we are in Indonesia, with no pressure cooke. Is it possible to make it on a regular gas stove, and how long would it take? Thank you:)
Hey Evelyn – Sure, you could make this in a pot on stovetop (my mom-in-law still prefers this method). Here are some changes – 1. Soak the lentils so that they cook quicker. 2. Almost double the amount of water. 3. It will take about 22-30 mins on medium-low flame. You can cover the pot, but do keep a close eye and check/stir from time to time. Hope that helps!
Thanks for sharing it. I liked it very much. Good thing is that you are sharing nutrition values also.
Hey Kushal – Glad to hear you enjoyed the Moong Dal 🙂
Excellent and easy dish
Thank you Namaswi. Glad you enjoyed the dal.
I tried it twice and it turned out great. Your recipes are really delicious but still very simple to do.
Hey Madhu – Thank you..it is definitely my goal to provide easy delicious recipes that can be cooked quickly in the pressure cooker. Glad to hear you enjoyed the dal 🙂
Made this with split moong 6 mins with natural release, added carrots, celery, 1 tsp curry powder, pinch of hing, and stirred in spinach at the end. Topped with mint as I did not have cilantro, and accidentally used cardamom seeds instead of coriander… came out a bit spicier than intended but delicious flavor. The lemon marries the flavors and brings the whole dish together. Wonderful.
Hey Jeanne – Glad you enjoyed the lentils. Thanks for sharing the changes you made. I love making a soup with lentils and veggies, similar to the Brown Lentils Soup I have shared. Thank you again for sharing your review!
Absolutely love this recipe! I followed it (almost) exactly…I added a tsp of curry powder and only used split mung beans. Kids loved it, hubby loved it and I did too!! I did pressure cook for 4 minutes and NR, it came out perfect!
Happy to hear you enjoyed the Dal. 4 mins is perfect for split lentils. Thank you for sharing your review 🙂
It’s awesome. Finger licking good 👌🏻😋
Hey Urvashi – So glad to hear you enjoyed the moong dal. Thank you for sharing your feedback!
If I want to add 2 carrots chopped and 2 celery chopped, how much more water should I add and how much more cooking time? Can I also add some chicken broth in place of the water for flavor? Thanks!
Hey Vee – Yes, you can add the veggies along with the lentils. Chicken broth would be great too. You don’t need to add any extra liquid. I add veggies and broth in the Brown Lentil Soup recipe, you can check it out for reference.
Just used this recipe with a mix of lentils and beans and it was delicious. I doubled the time to cook them and added chopped celery. Will definitely be making it again.
Hey Archana – Glad to hear you enjoyed the dal. Great variation and perfect timing of 30 minutes for the added beans.
This looks good, but I am confused. As a non-Indian, I know green moong dal as mung bean and a different legume entirely from green (actually brown in color) lentils. Lentils are very quick cooking, but I am very less familiar with mung beans. Are they really interchangeable?
Hey Michelle – There are so many different lentils, and frankly even I have not tried all of them 🙂 There is green moong dal, which looks like small green balls used in this recipe. And there is brown masoor dal, these are brown and more like flattened balls. You could use these both interchangeably while cooking. The good thing is these lentils have different flavors, even if you prepare them the same way (more variety for us :-)). In case the lentils are split, the cooking time reduces to 6-8 minutes. Here is a brown lentil soup I have shared – http://pipingpotcurry.com/brown-lentil-soup-pressure-cooker/
I tried it today, and had them pre-soaked. It was delicious. Thanks for another easy recipe.
Hey Namita – Glad you enjoyed the Moong Dal recipe 🙂
Yummy recipe with a good balance of spices. I did soak the lentils and kept the original cooking time, which I thought gave a good texture. I do prefer beans and lentils to be on the softer side rather than al dente. Thanks for another easy and tasty weeknight staple!
Hey Vee – Thanks for sharing your review. Glad to hear you enjoyed the lentils 🙂
Can you use any kind of canned tomatoes instead of fresh for this recipe? Thanks!
Sure, you can use 1 cup diced canned tomatoes in place of fresh in this recipe. Hope you enjoy it!
Tried this recipe and the dal came out hard and crunchy. I did not soak them beforehand but you mentioned that you usually don’t. Any thoughts on what could have gone wrong?
Hi Bansi – I am not sure what could have been the issue. Sometimes the lentils could be old and they take longer to cook. You could cook for longer and try again. I usually don’t soak for green moong dal, but next time you can try soaking them and see how long they take to cook.
Just tried the recipe and did manual high pressure 20 minutes (instead of 15) and did natural release and it worked out well. It was super tasty and just the right consistency. Maybe that would work .
Hey Nayomi – Absolutely, 20 minutes works too for this recipe. Glad it worked out well. Thank you for sharing your review 🙂
Is the cooking time the same if i’m cutting the recipe in half?
Hey Milly – Yes, the cooking time will remain the same. The ip will just take less time to come to pressure. Hope you enjoy it!