Dhaba Style Dal Makhani

Name: Dhaba Style Dal Makhani
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 10 min
Yield: 3
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 1 cup Urad Dal (whole),; 1/2 cup Rajma/Kidney Bean,; 4 Tomato, medium; 4-6 clove Garlic, peeled; 2-Inch Piece Ginger,; 20-30 g Butter,; 1/4 tsp Asafoetida (Hing), powdered; Salt, to taste; 2 tsp Red Chilli Powder,; 1 pinch Turmeric Powder,; 7 cup Water, or as needed; 2 tsp Dhania Powder,; 1/2 tsp Roasted Cumin, crushed or powdered; 1/2 tsp Garam Masala,; 3/4 to 1 cup Fresh Milk Cream,

When I say that it is Dhaba style dal makhani, I mean that it is Delhi’s Dhaba Style Dal Makhani. That is the best. Literally. It is creamy, flavourful, & just absolutely drool-worthy. And with this recipe, you can have the same experience at home too.

Also, make it a little extra so that with the leftover dal makhani, you can make our delicious dal makhani wraps too. One dish, two recipes. Wao.

STORY TIME

We both are from Delhi. We both are vegetarians. That means every birthday, every anniversary, or every special occasion at home was celebrated with dal makhani. Literally. In both our families, dal makhani, some kind of paneer recipe, and naan used to be our go-to meal whenever we ordered food from outside. No celebration was complete without these food items.

Then we grew up, we got married, shared our love for dal makhani with each other, and then moved to Pune. There we just couldn’t find that same taste of dal makhani in any Dhaba or restaurant. And like always, I had no option left but to make it at home. And we did it. We got the same taste in our homemade dal makhani too. That was a big celebratory moment. And like always we celebrated with dal makhani. Since then, we have never ordered dal makhani from outside. Homemade is always the best. Right?

If you don’t have time, watch the video instead.

SECRET OF DAL MAKHANI

You may think that the creaminess of dal makhani comes from adding a lot of cream or butter to it. That is not true. I mean, you need that but that is not the only thing to get that rich and creamy texture. The secret is – SLOW COOKING. That’s right my friend. There is no shortcut to that. You have to have patience, a lot of it while making this delicious recipe.

How Slow Cooking helps?

Well, the dal which we use in this recipe – urad dal (whole) or urad chilka – gets very starchy and creamy when you cook it for a very long time. The more you cook, the more creamy it gets. In many restaurants or dhabas, by the end of the day, when they are done with making naan or roti on the tandoor, they put this dal on it and leave it to cook overnight. Dal cooks slowly on hot coal for the entire night and that is how you get that rich and creamy texture in it.

But obviously, you can’t do that at home. Although, my Instant Pot has an option of slow cooking which I will try one day. I slow cook this dal in two parts. First, when I pressure cook urad dal and rajma together. After a whistle in the pressure cooker, I cook it on the lowest flame for another 40 to 50 minutes till it gets well cooked and mushy. Then after tempering, I add a lot of water and again cook on the lowest flame till it gets rich and creamy. That takes another 1.5 to 2 hrs. So, if you want to make it for lunch, I would suggest starting it right after breakfast.

ADJUSTMENTS – YOU MAY WANT TO MAKE

Tempering: I don’t add onion in this recipe but if you want, you can add 1 to 2 large onions, pureed well or finely chopped. Cook till they get brown and caramalised.
Butter: I use store bought milk cream in this recipe but you can substitute that with butter or homemade milk cream which we call malai in hindi. If using malai, blend it first otherwise you will see tiny white pieces all over.

CAN WE MAKE IT VEGAN?

Of course. Why not? I am going to try and share the vegan dal makhani too very soon. And you can trust me, it would be as delicious as this one. We ordered vegan dal makhani once and it was so delicious. I mean it was hard to tell whether it was vegan or not. That gave me the motivation to try it at home too. So, very soon you will have one healthy dal makhani recipe with no compromise on the taste.

HOW TO SERVE?

To have the best experience, serve it hot. It tastes best with any kind of Indian bread – chapati, paratha, naan, tandoori roti, missi roti. We also love it with aalu paratha. You can try that. It tastes delicious.

We also serve it with some jeera rice or simple steamed rice. For the salad, we like it with some pickled onion. Or if you don’t have that, serve it with some onion and sliced cucumber.

Now grab all the ingredients because you are ready to make Dhaba-style dal makhani at home. Enjoy it over lunch or some weekend brunch. Make it for your friends over any house party or cook it for any celebration at home. It will be a show-stopper. Don’t believe me, TRY IT.

If you like the recipe, please share the photo on Instagram and tag us too @marriedfriends. We just love to see your recreation of our recipes.