• 1 cup Yellow moong dal (split and skinless)
  2 tablespoons Oil
• 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
• 8-10 Curry leaves
• ¼ teaspoon Hing (Asafoetida)
• ½ inch Ginger
• 1 Green chili ginger garlic and chili are crushed together
• 1 cup Tomato finely chopped
• Salt to taste
• ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon Red chili powder
• 1 teaspoon Coriander powder
• 3 ½ cups Water
• 2 teaspoons Lemon juice or Lime juice
• 1-2 tablespoons Cilantro or coriander leaves finely chopped

Instructions 

1. Take moong dal in a colander and rinse under running cold water until water runs clear. While rinsing massage the dal using fingers. Alternately, you can rinse the dal in a bowl 2-3 times until the water is not cloudy anymore.
2. Turn on the instant pot with saute mode and add oil. Once hot add cumin seeds and let them sizzle a bit.
3. Add curry leaves and hing. Saute for 25-30 seconds.
4. Immediately  ginger chili paste. Saute for 3 minutes or until the onion starts to soften and becomes light pink in color.
5. Add tomatoes and mix. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until tomatoes starts to soften and be mushy.
6. Add salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder and coriander powder. Mix well and saute for a minute.
7. Add rinsed dal and water. Mix, turn off the saute mode.
8. Cover the instant pot with a lid, keep the valve to a sealing position. Cook on manual (high pressure) for 3 minutes.
   Stovetop pressure cooker: Cook for 2 whistles on medium heat.
9. Let the pressure go down by itself (aka NPR – natural pressure release). Once the pin drops, open the lid.
10. Stir the cooked dal and check the consistency. If it’s too thick then add a splash of water to make desired consistency and bring it to a boil on saute mode.
11. Once you get the right consistency, add the lime juice and mix.
12. Lastly, garnish with freshly chopped cilantro.

Tips & Notes

• Ginger, green chili: I have crushed them together in the wet jar of my spice grinder. You can use ready-made ginger garlic paste and chopped green chili instead.
• Avoid overcooking moong dal otherwise, it becomes too smooth and pasty with a sticky, gooey texture.
• Add a good amount of water. This dal gets thick after cools down. If added less water then it comes lumpy. This requires more water compared to other dal recipes.
• Adjust the spices. I prefer to keep my dal mildly spiced to keep the original taste of lentils. You can increase the amount of spices to get spicy dal. Even you can add garam masala after pressure cooking.