Aromatic Indian tadka can be prepared only if tomato is cooked. Tomato is world famous fruit, which has many powerful vitamins and minerals. It tastes good, even when eaten raw. Lycopene is a powerful ingredient of tomato, which helps in protecting skin from UV rays. Tomato dal cleans stomach and helps in digestion. Tomato should be properly crushed and boiled during preparation of tomato dal. Toor/Toovar dal is used in preparation of tomato dal. Tomato dal is simple and easy to prepare. You have to choose ripe tomatoes and see that, they are pure. Rotten tomatoes are not good for preparation of dal. Rotten tomatoes can show severe impact on your health.
Ingredients:
Toovar dal 1 cup
Tomatoes 4 med sized
Onion nicely sliced 2
Green chillies 2 or 3
Red chili powder 1 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Fresh coriander springs 2
Tamarind 2 or 3
Salt to taste
Popular Accompaniments:
Tomato dal can be served with any pickle, mango pickle is best. Tomato dal can be served with roti. Papads can also be served along with tomato dal.
Preparation:
Wash toor dal properly.
Wash it well, remove the water and pour fresh water into it.
Take tamarind and wash it once with pure water.
Cut tomatoes and put them aside.
Main Cooking:
Put Toovar dal in a cooker, pour some water and cook it for some time.
After it gets cooked, put it aside and take a fresh vessel.
Take a heavy vessel, having deep bottom. Heat oil and mustard seeds, wait for the splutter sound and add cumin seeds, garlic, red chili, curry leaves to it.
Add onions to this tempering and sauté it till the mixture turns transparent. Now add green chilies, red chili powder, chopped tomatoes, salt to taste and turmeric powder to this mixture.
Add tamarind to the solution before it becomes soft. Tamarind is added to bring nice taste to the tomato dal. If tamarind is not added, tomato dal doesn’t get nice taste.
Cook it till tomatoes become soft. Add cooked dal to that mixture and add half cup of water. Boil the dal for some time.
Finally you can add coriander and fresh springs to it.
Presentation:
Put rice in a plate and spread tomato dal over it. You can serve it in a wide plate; wide plate reduces the heat and allows you to put hands into hot dal. Add ghee to the rice and serve tomato dal in a plate.
