This is one of my favourite dal’s, it is rich and filling and you really do not miss the meat with this dish; it is also a great side dish to your curry.

‘Makhani’ means ‘with butter’ this is not the healthiest of dishes but it is one of the tastiest, it also has a drizzle of cream in to make it extra yummy!

Traditionally the Urad bean is used; which is a black bean, it can be used on its own or with red kidney beans (rajma). When I have cooked this in the past I used black beans with black lentils (which I think must have been beluga lentils) but I couldn’t find these here in Spain so I opted for the red kidneys beans as I read online they add creaminess to the dish.  They do make the dish less dark so if you want that rich black dal just stick with the black beans.

Check out more info here;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dal_makhani

Ingredients:

1 cup black beans

1/2 cup red kidney beans

3 cloves garlic

1″ chunk ginger

1″ chunk fresh turmeric/ 1 tsp powder

1 chilli

1/2 onion

1 tsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp garam masala

1 cinnamon stick

3 cardamom pods bashed

3 cloves

2 tsp cumin seeds

60g butter

3 tomatoes

100g fresh cream (I used double)

1 tsp sea salt

Method:

Soak the beans in water overnight.

Rinse the beans and place double the amount of water in the pan and bring to the boil, cook until soft.  It took about 45 minutes; just make sure the water is topped up as it could stick.

Blitz up the tomatoes and garlic, set aside.

Fry the onions in a little oil until soft and place in a blender with the ginger, turmeric and chilli. Blitz up to a paste and set aside.

Fry the cinnamon, cumin, cardamom and cloves in the oil let in the onion pan and cook until the cumin seeds pop and there is an aroma.

Empty in the onion paste and paprika, stir well.

Add the tomato paste again stir well.

Let this cook for 5 minutes then add the garam masala and sea salt.

Once your beans are cooked drain, reserving the liquid.

Place a ¼ of the beans into a blender, pour in the onion/tomato mixture and blitz the whole lot to be smooth.

Pour back into the pan, pour a little bit of the bean liquid if it sticks.  Also pour a little of the bean liquid into the blender to scrape all the sides down, I don’t like to waste anything!!  Add this to the pan.

Add the rest of the beans and stir.

Add the butter and let this melt into the sauce.

Simmer for 30 minutes.  Taste and check if it needs more salt.

Add the cream reserving a little for a drizzle decoration.

Serve!

Enjoy!

Lulu xxx

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