Dal bhat recipe

Plain lentil soup and plain rice, joined at the last second by ghee sizzled with jimbu and poured over the pot.

45 minuteseasy11 ingredients

Ingredients

• 1 tsp jimbu
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 200 g red lentils
• 300 g rice
• 2 dried red chilies
• 3 clove garlic
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 15 g ginger
• 1 onion
• 1 tsp salt

How to make Dal bhat

1. Rinse 200 g of red lentils, then boil them in 850 ml of water with 1 tsp of turmeric, 15 g of grated ginger and 1 tsp of salt.
2. Skim the foam and simmer 25 minutes until the lentils collapse, then whisk them smooth, thinning with hot water if needed.
3. Cook 300 g of rice separately in plain salted water. Bhat is never spiced, that is the point of the pairing.
4. Heat 2 tbsp of ghee in a small pan until it shimmers.
5. Drop in 1 tsp of cumin seeds, 2 dried red chilies and 3 sliced garlic cloves; when the garlic turns golden add 1 sliced onion and fry it brown.
6. Take the pan off the heat and crumble in 1 tsp of dried jimbu. It scorches in seconds, so let the residual heat do the work.
7. Pour the sizzling fat over the cooked dal and clap the lid on for a minute. This step, jhaneko, is what makes it Nepali rather than generic lentil soup.
8. Serve the dal over the rice, with a vegetable tarkari and a pickle. If you cannot find jimbu, leave it out and say so; chives are a different herb, not a stand-in.

Get Copper on the App Store

More dishes from Nepal →