Restaurant Style Dal Makhani Recipe
Restaurant Style Dal Makhani Recipe is one of the famous North Indian cuisine. Origin of Dal Makhani is again from none other than Punjab. Punjabi cuisine recipes are very popular in India.
This recipe was introduced by migrating punjabi community and it became popularised within India and internationally.
Information about Dal Makhani
Onion, Garlic, Tomato and whole spices are main ingredients of punjabi style vegetables or punjabi style dals or punjabi curries. So here we go, we are going to use all these ingredients to prepare very delicious rich and creamy restaurant styled Dal Makhani recipe.
It is one of my favourite dal recipe because of its richness and creamy flavour. It tastes great and it can be served with Plain Parathas, Phulke, Naan or Kulchas. And even it goes well with plain Rice or Jeera Rice.
Dal Makhani is prepared with a mix of Whole Black Gram Dal or Sabut Urad Dal and Kidney Beans or Rajma and whole spices. Makkhan means butter, which gives Dal a delicious taste. However, we can use just Ghee (clarified butter) as well.
Serve this delicious creamy gravy recipe with some onion, cucumber slices and roasted green chilies and squeeze some lemon juice on top of chilies, onion to enhance the taste.
Don't be tensed by looking at number of ingredients. Most of these ingredients will be easily available in your kitchen. Now, let's see step by step process to prepare creamy Dal Makhani.
Check here another famous Punjabi gravy recipe, you might not want to miss is Rajma recipe which tastes best with rice and any indian flat breads. Rajma chawal is a famous combo food in many North Indian restaurants.
If you love North Indian food and would like to see many more such recipes, visit FoodQuench's Main Course playlist on YouTube.
- 3/4 cups Whole Black Gram Lentil (Kali Sabut Urad)
- 1/4 cup Red Kidney Beans
- 4 cups Water (for pressure cooking urad dal & rajma and to adjust gravy consistency, use more water if required)
- 3 Bay Leaves
- 2 Green Cardamom
- 2 Black Cardamom
- 6 Clove
- 1 inch Cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons Clarified Butter (Ghee)
- 1/2 tablespoon Ginger (grated or finely chopped)
- 1/2 tablespoon Garlic (grated or finely chopped)
- 2 Onion (medium sized - finely chopped)
- 2 Tomato (medium sized - make puree or finely chop)
- 1/4 Turmeric Powder
- 1/2 Coriander Powder
- 1/2 Cumin Powder
- 1/2 Garam Masala
- 1/2 tablespoon Red Chilli Powder
- 1/2 tablespoon Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
- 1/2 tablespoon Salt
- 1/4 tablespoon Sugar
- 1 tablespoon Readymade Butter
- 2 tablespoons Fresh Cream (Malai)
- 1 tablespoon Coriander (finely chopped)
Take 3/4th cup of whole black gram dal (sabut urad dal) and 1/4th cup kidney beans (rajma), wash well. Add enough water and soak both urad dal and rajma overnight for 7 to 8 hours. Drain off the water and start with next process.
Soaking sabut urad dal and rajma for enough hours is very important. If you soak for couple of hours then Dal wouldn’t turn very soft and you may need to pressure cook for longer time.Now transfer dal to pressure cooker. Add Bay Leafs, Green Cardamom, Black Cardamom, Cinnamon stick, Cloves and 3 cups of water.
Pressure cook dal for up to 7 to 8 whistles on medium heat.
While dal is getting cooked - finely chop onion, grate ginger and garlic.
Make tomato puree by grinding in mixer.
Allow pressure cooker to cool down completely and make sure dal has turned soft.
You may mash and check if dal has become soft. If not then pressure cook for few(one or two) more whistles accordingly.Now add ghee to kadhai, once ghee melts add grated ginger, garlic, finely chopped onions to ghee.
Saute ginger, garlic, onions until change to golden colour (for 3 to 4 minutes).
Now add tomato puree to kadhai and allow to cook until tomato puree turns soft (for 3 to 4 minutes).
At this stage add coriander powder, garam masala, red chilli powder, kashmiri red chilli powder, turmeric powder. Mix all spices and saute for another minute.
Kashmiri red chilli powder gives very nice colour to the gravy. You may skip if you don't have.Now add boiled whole black gram dal and kidney beans mixture to the spices, mix it well and add 1 cup of water to it. Close the Kadhai with lid and allow it to cook for 10 to 12 minutes and mix it.
Mash the dal makhani mixture with the help of potato masher. Again close the lid and cook it for 10 more minutes. Now add salt, sugar to dal makhani and mix well.
Just adding little sugar gives it an awesome taste. The way without salt nothing tastes good, similarly for some recipes adding sugar is very important to enhance recipe taste.It’s time to add butter and simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes.
Lastly add fresh cream and cook for 3 to 5 more minutes.
Finally add some fresh and finely chopped coriander or Cilantro to the Dal Makhani.
Creamy and delicious Punjabi Style Dal Makhani or Restaurant Style Dal Makhani is ready. Add some fresh cream on top of Dal Makhani before serving for the best look.
Hope you like this Dal Makhani Recipe. All the very best for your cooking, try it, I am sure you will enjoy this recipe 😊.