Panchmel dal also known as panchratna dal is a protein-packed lentil dish that contains the goodness and nutritive qualities of 5 different lentils or dals. Not only it is healthy but also equally delicious. This hearty and nutritious recipe comes from Rajasthani cuisine and made without onion and garlic.
About Panchmel Dal
Panchmel dal is also called as Panchratna dal or dal panchmel. The word Panch means five and the Dal is for lentils in Hindi language.
The 5 lentils that are used in the panchmel dal recipe are:
- Bengal gram dal – chana dal
- Black gram – urad dal
- Green gram dal – moong dal
- Pigeon peas split and skinned – arhar, tuvar, toor, tur dal
- Moth bean split – moth dal
Decades back I had first read about this recipe in the Times of India newspaper. The recipe in the newspaper was detailed by Maharana Arvind Singh Mewar of Udaipur.
I adapted and tweaked this recipe to suit our taste buds and the results were a delicious, flavorful dal, that has been a favorite with my family for a long time. You might be surprised that this dish does not contain any onion and garlic but still taste so good.
While moth dal is one of the lentils I didn’t have it, so I used masoor dal also known as red lentil or pink lentil. If you stay in India, then in food outlets like spencers, big bazaar, reliance mart etc, you get a package of 500 gram or 1 kilogram of the 5 different dals which are mainly used in Indian cuisine, namely – chana dal, moong dal, tuvar dal, masoor dal, urad dal.
You can use this mix lentil package or use equal proportion of all 5 lentils. You could even use the skinned and split variety of the above dals.
How to make Panchmel Dal
Pressure cooking dals
1. Rinse 1 cup of mixed lentils couple of times in water – chana dal, moong dal, masoor dal, arhar dal and urad dal. You can use equal proportion of these 5 lentils. If you have moth dal then do use it.
You can even make this dish with a combination of 2 or 3 or 4 lentils depending upon the availability of the lentils.
2. In a bowl, soak all the lentils in water for 30 to 45 minutes. The lentils will soak after 30 to 45 minutes but you can soak even for 1 to 2 hours.
3. Drain all the water.
4. Measure all the ingredients and keep ready for making panchmel dal. Get your spices ready. Chop tomatoes. Crush the ginger and green chili in a mortar pestle and set aside.
5. Add the soaked lentils in a 3 liter pressure cooker. Pour 3 to 3.5 cups water in the cooker.
You can also cook the lentils in a pan or Instant pot. Use the required amount of water if cooking in a pan or Instant pot.
6. Pressure cook the lentils on medium heat for 4 to 5 whistles or till they are completely cooked and softened. Note that cooking lentils in a pot will take more time.
7. Open the lid of the pressure cooker only when all the pressure inside the cooker falls naturally. Mash the cooked lentils lightly with a spoon or wired whisk.
If the consistency looks thick, then add some hot water and stir to get a medium consistency in the lentil mixture.
Making panchmel dal
8. In another frying pan, heat 2 to 3 tablespoons oil or ghee.
9. Lower the heat and add ½ teaspoon cumin seeds. Let them splutter.
10. Then add 2 cloves, 2 green cardamoms and 2 to 3 broken dried red chilies with seeds removed.
11. Fry till the spices crackle and the red chilies change color. Ensure not to burn the spices.
12. Then add 1 inch crushed ginger and 1 crushed green chili. Stir and fry for a few seconds or till the raw aroma of ginger goes away.
13. Then add 1 chopped large-sized tomato. Mix well.
14. Next add the following spices and mix well.
- ¼ teaspoon asafoetida (hing)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon garam masala powder.
15. Saute the tomatoes well on low heat till they become soft and mushy. You should see oil separating from the tomato masala.
16. Then add this fried tempering mixture to the cooked lentils in the pressure cooker.
17. Mix well and simmer the dal for 5 to 6 minutes on low heat, so that the flavors of the spices infuse well with the lentils. Keep stirring often so that the lentils do not stick on the bottom of the cooker.
18. Add salt according to taste and mix well.
19. Garnish the dal with some coriander leaves (cilantro). This step is optional.
20. While serving, if you prefer top the panchratna dal with 1 to 2 teaspoons ghee in the serving bowl. It will make the dal taste more flavorful.
21. Serve dal panchmel with roti, steamed rice, jeera rice or dal bati – a famous and unique Rajasthani recipe made from wheat flour.
Expert Tips
- If you don’t have 5 lentils then you can even make this dish with 2 or 3 or 4 lentils.
- Use the lentils that are fresh and in their shelf period. Aged lentils will take a lot of time to cook.
- This dal is not spicy. To make a spicy dal increase the number of green chillies. Optionally you can add some red chili powder to the tempering mixture.
- Soaking the lentils helps to reduce the cooking time and makes them cook evenly.
- You can choose to cook the lentils in a pot or pan adding require amount of water.
If you are looking for more Dal Recipes then do check:
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Panchmel Dal
Ingredients
total 1 cup lentils consisting equal amounts of
- bengal gram dal (chana dal)
- green gram dal (moong dal)
- pink lentils (masoor dal)
- pigeon peas spilt and skinned (tuvar dal or arhar dal)
- black gram (urad dal)
other ingredients
- 3 to 3.5 cups water for pressure cooking the dals
- 2 green cardamom
- 2 cloves
- 1 green chilli, – crushed in a mortar pestle
- 2 to 3 red chillies, broken and seeds removed
- 1 inch ginger – crushed in a mortar pestle
- 1 large tomato, chopped
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder (ground turmeric)
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon Garam Masala
- ¼ teaspoon asafoetida powder (hing)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) or oil
- salt as required
Instructions
Pressure cooking lentils
- Rinse all the lentils for a couple of times in fresh water.
- Then soak them in water for 30 to 45 minutes. After 30 to 45 minutes drain all the water.
- Pressure cook the lentils with water for 4 to 5 whistles on a medium heat or till they are completely cooked and softened.
- Mash the cooked lentils lightly with a spoon.
- If the lentils mixture look thick, then add some hot water and stir to get a medium consistency in it.
Making panchmel dal
- In another frying pan, heat oil or ghee. On a low heat add cumin seeds. Let them splutter. Then add the cloves, cardamoms and broken dried red chilies with seeds removed.
- Fry till the red chilies change color. Add the crushed ginger and green chilly. Fry them for a few seconds or till the raw aroma of ginger goes away.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, asafoetida (hing), turmeric powder and garam masala powder.
- Saute the tomatoes well on a low flame till they become soft and mushy. The oil or ghee will also separate.
- Now add this fried tempering mixture to the lentils. Mix well.
- Simmer the dal for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring often so that the flavors of the spices infuse well with the lentils.
- Add salt as per taste and mix well. Garnish it with coriander leaves. Adding coriander leaves is optional.
- You can choose to add a drizzle of about 1 to 2 teaspoons of ghee to the dal panchmel in the serving bowl.
- Serve panchmel dal with roti, rice, jeera rice, paratha or dal bati.
Notes
- Use lentils that are fresh.
- You can use a combination of 2 or 3 or 4 lentils.
- The recipe can be scaled.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Panchmel Dal recipe post from the archives (Feb 2010) has been republished and updated on 12 June 2021.
wow, one dal that i really want to try cooking as soon as possible !!
Thank you for this recipe, Dassana !!!
Welcome and thanks.
Thank you for the awesome recipe
Your recipes are just wonderful, they have made a much better and confident cook. I recently tried your paneer tikka recipe and the shammi kabab recipe, both turned out to be awesome.
Request you to please give recipes for Dal Batti and Raj Kachori. I dont want to risk making it with the recipes from any other website ????
thank you saumya. glad ????. i do plan to add both dal bati and raj kachori. so will add them in some time. i have a whole list of recipes to be made this year as well as recipe requests from readers. thanks again.
Thank you for an easy recipe, with delicious results! I’ve made it a few times. Today I added cooked chopped spinach after the tomatoes, then proceeded as usual. Another winner!
Welcome. Thanks for the feedback and rating on the recipe and also for sharing the variation you made.
Hello!
Just a quick couple of questions. Should all the daals used in this recipe be husked and split? Also can I use whole moth bean instead of split moth bean?
Also wanted to say that your recipes are mouth-wateringly delicious! This’ll be my fourth daal to make from your recipes – having previously made palak daal, daal tadka, chana daal fry & cholar daal 🙂
thanks ziba. i am glad that you have liked the various dal recipes. the dals have to be split. however they can be husked or not husked. so for moth beans, you can use split moth beans but not whole beans. reason being, the cooking time will be more for the whole beans as compared to the split beans. also the final taste and consistency of the dal will change if whole beans are added.
Hi! Dassana,
I have been writing a book on Indian cuisine in Korean for last 3 years. During researching and studying, I’ve learned many things about vegetarian food from you. The end of this year, finally the book is going to be published in South Korea. I want to discuss something with you. If you don’t mind, please contact me so to let me explain more.
Jean, Glad to know that blog was helpful to you in knowing more about vegetarian food. You can contact me at this email id – vegrecipesofindia@gmail.com
Kindly advise if we can freeze the Dal after cooking
avoid freezing dal. firstly the taste changes a lot and secondly lentils should be had freshly cooked. refrigerating or freezing them is not good for health as per ayurveda. can cause indigestion and stomach upsets.
Dassana, there is not one recipe that I have looked for and have not found it on your website. You have an amazing collection of recipes. 🙂
I have been reading your recipes since a couple of years now. The step by step images are your USP, do not part ways with that.
Kudos to all the great work you do. Keep uploading more so that I keep learning more and more from you.
thanks a lot priyanka. definitely not. this recipe is one of my earliest recipe. some of my early recipes that were posted do not have step by step pics. i am trying to add step by step pics in each such recipes gradually. so far i have updated many such recipes with either video or step by step pics.
thanks again and happy cooking ????
As usual, another simple and delicious recipe… My kitchen would have been tasteless without you… So thanks for all your hard work…
I am wondering why don’t you add salt in pressure cooker…
bhavana, thank you much for this lovely comment. if salt is added too lentils, then at times they don’t become too soft. they cook but the separate lentils are visible. usually for making dals and sambar, the lentils have to be cooked till they can be mashed easily. so i do not add salt when pressure cooking.
This has become a regular dish at home. The recipe definitely deserves 5 stars for being super tasty:) thank you dassana !
thanks a lot tanusha both for the feedback on the recipe and also for the rating.
Such a nice blog, I am curious to see your recipe blog. such a fantastic work…..
this is the recipe blog. thanks a lot.
Thanks for the recipe…i have tried lots of recipes from your site…. You do good work.
Hi
I used to follow the recipes from this site alot. But lately most of the recipes do not have the step by step images that you used to have earlier. Images make a lot easier and faster to follow the recipe so if possible add the images.
thankyou tanya we are working on the same as some post’s do not have step by step pics allow us some time would post that too soon. also thanks for sharing your feedback it means a lot to us.
I am getting most of my cooking skills through you, thank you. I will be making this tonight. Will Post you the final results.
thanks dzabel and do share the feedback.
Hi .. I m huge fan of your food art .. literally you are a life saver .. following you from last dozens of months now .. but writing for first time .. Thanks for sharing your skills
thanks a lot kabeer 🙂
pleased to know this thankyou for your positive words 🙂 glad to know this kabeer god bless you.
Can we use whole urad dal instead of the split ones ? I don’t have that right now in my pantry but have the other four types !!
prabha, yes you can.