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Home » Main Course Recipes

Simple One-Pot Aubergine Daal Recipe

Published: Feb 21, 2022 · Modified: Jul 15, 2022 by Chef Tripti · This post may contain affiliate links

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In India, we would have daal almost every day for lunch. Usually, the lunch would consist of daal, a side of seasonal saute vegetables, and some form of raita (yoghurt with spices or herbs or vegetables) in the summer months. Since moving to the UK, I have tried to simplify my life; I mean, who wants to do a whole lot of washing up every day? So, this one-pot daal recipe is ideal and combines two types of lentils and aubergine to create a tasty, quick meal.

aubergine Dal in a shallow dish
Aubergine Daal

I'm not the biggest fan of aubergine on its own; however, cooked with the right spices and combined with the daals, the aubergine transforms, and my taste buds approve! Consequently, this one-pot recipe is one of my go-to comfort foods.

For a busy lifestyle, one-pot recipes are ideal, requiring minimum equipment and time, but the result is nutritious and, of course, delicious! You might like my one-pot chickpea and hispi cabbage curry, for instance!

Jump to:
  • Ingredients
  • Instructions
  • Tadka Instructions
  • How To Video
  • 📖 Recipe
  • Substitutions
  • Storage
  • Top tip
  • Food Safety

Ingredients

Aubergine daal ingredients
Aubergine Daal Ingredients
  • Aubergine
  • Masoor Daal (red lentils)
  • Arhar Daal (split pigeon pea daal)
  • Tomatoes
  • Red onion
  • Garlic
  • Ginger
  • Green chilli
  • Cinammon stick
  • Cumin seeds
  • Coriander seeds
  • Turmeric
  • Olive oil
  • Sea Salt flakes

For Tadka (Garnish)

  • Olive oil
  • Garlic
  • Nigella seeds
  • Cumin seeds
  • Fresh curry leaf
  • Green chilli

See the recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

To begin, prepare your ingredients.

A couple of hours before you intend to cook, wash and soak the daal in separate bowls. Once soaked, drain and rinse the daals and set them aside.

Finely chop the red onion, garlic and ginger.

Roughly chop the tomatoes.

Dice the aubergine into one-inch cubes, leaving the skin on the aubergine.

Roughly chop the green chilli.

Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the cinnamon stick and fry for thirty seconds.

Follow this with the finely chopped onion and fry until golden brown. Then add the finely chopped garlic and ginger and continue to fry for three to five minutes until soft and fragrant.

Pot containing finely chopped onion, garlic and ginger
Frying The Finely Chopped Onion, Garlic and Ginger

Now add the cumin and coriander seeds and continue to fry for two to three minutes. Follow this with the green chillies and aubergine cubes and cook for a further five minutes until the skin of the aubergine flesh changes colour.

Adding the chopped green chillies to the aubergine daal mix
Adding The Chopped Green Chillies
Adding chopped aubergine to the aubergine daal mix
Adding The Chopped Aubergine

At this point, add the turmeric powder and the chopped tomatoes and mix well. Cook until the tomatoes are soft - about five minutes.

Adding chopped tomatoes to the aubergine daal mix
Adding The Chopped Tomatoes

Then add both the daals to the pot

Adding daal to aubergine daal mix
Adding the Two Types Of Daal

Finally, add the water and salt and bring to a boil.

Aubergine daal mix after water added, ready for final cooking
Aubergine Daal Ready For Final Cooking After Water And Salt Added

Turn down the heat and simmer for about twenty minutes until the lentils have cooked.

Once cooked, set aside and make the tadka to garnish the daal.

Tadka Instructions

Tadka is spices cooked in hot oil to release their flavours. It is a quick process.

In a small pan, add the oil over medium/high heat. The oil needs to be quite hot to bloom the spices and release the flavours.

Add the thinly sliced garlic and fry for about one minute.

Frying thinly sliced garlic for tadka
Frying The Thinly Sliced Garlic Fro the Tadka

The garlic will turn a light golden brown. Add the cumin seeds, nigella seeds, green chilli and give the pan a shake. Immediately add the curry leaves and give the pan another shake. Be careful not to burn the spices and garlic; they will taste bitter. This whole process takes less than two minutes.

Adding curry leaves, cumin seeds, nigella seeds, green chilli to tadka for aubergine dal
Adding Curry Leaves, Cumin Seeds, Nigella Seeds, Green Chilli To The Tadka

Add the tadka garnish to the top of the daal and serve.

Serving suggestions for the daal could include plain rice or paratha.

How To Video

Here is a video guide to making an aubergine daal one-pot recipe.

How To Make One Pot Aubergine Daal

📖 Recipe

shallow dish containing aubergine Daal garnished with garlic and curry leaf tadka

One-Pot Recipe: Aubergine Daal

Chef Tripti
Simple one-pot recipe with mixed daals and aubergine. Flavoured with aromatic spices.
No ratings yet
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 45 minutes mins
Total Time 1 hour hr
Course Main Course
Cuisine Indian
Servings 4

Equipment

  • Digital scales

Ingredients
  

Dal

  • 100 gms Masoor (red lentils) daal
  • 100 gms Arhar (Split pigeon peas ) daal
  • 250 gms Aubergine
  • 150 gms Tomatoes
  • 100 gms Red onion
  • 15 gms Garlic
  • 15 gms Ginger
  • 1 Green chilli
  • 1 stick Cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
  • 2 teaspoon Coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp Turmeric
  • 2 tablespoon Oil
  • 350 ml Water
  • 1 tablespoon Sea salt flakes

Tadka

  • 1 teaspoon Oil
  • ½ teaspoon Cumin seeds
  • ½ teaspoon Nigella seeds
  • 10 gms Garlic one clove thinly sliced
  • 1 sprig Curry leaf
  • 1 Green chilli optional

Instructions
 

Daal

  • Wash and soak both the daals in separate bowls for about two hours. Then rinse and drain the water.
  • Finely chop the onions, garlic and ginger.
  • Roughly dice the tomatoes.
  • Cut the aubergine into one inch cubes. Leave the skin on the aubergine.
  • Roughly dice the green chilli.
  • Heat the oil in a large pot over a medium heat, Add the cinnamon stick and fry for thirty seconds.
  • Add the onions and fry until golden brown. Then add the chopped ginger and garlic and continue to fry until the garlic and ginger are soft and fragrant (about 3-5 minutes)
  • Add the cumin and coriander seeds and fry for about two minutes until fragrant.
  • Add the green chilli and aubergine cubes and fry for about five minutes or until the colour of the aubergine flesh changes.
  • Add the turmeric powder and chopped tomatoes and give it a good mix. Continue frying until the tomatoes are soft.
  • Now add both types of lentils, the water and the salt. Cover and cook for twenty minutes, stirring from time to time.
  • Once the lentils have cooked, set aside.

Tadka

  • Peel and thinly slice the garlic. Remove the curry leaves from the stem.
  • Heat the oil in a small pan or pot over medium/high heat. Add the sliced garlic and fry for about 1 minute.
  • Add the cumin seeds, nigella seeds, green chilli and curry leaves. Fry for 30 seconds or so. Remove from heat and add to the daal before serving.
  • Serve with plain rice or a flatbread.
Keyword comfort food, one pot meals, vegan
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Substitutions

You can replace the masoor daal (red lentils) and the arhar daal (split pigeon peas) with any other daal you have at home. The yellow daals will taste the same; however, green, black, or other lentils will alter the taste. You will also need to soak the lentils for longer, possibly overnight, or else they will take longer to cook, and the aubergine may reduce too much, resulting in a paste-like texture.

If you are not a fan of aubergine, you can use marrow. You can even use courgettes. Roast the courgettes separately, either in the oven or pan-fry them. Add them at the end when the lentils have almost cooked.

If you don't have fresh curry leaves, I do not recommend using dried ones as they don't have the same flavour. You can omit it from the tadka and instead add chopped coriander at the very end.

Storage

Reheat thoroughly before using. You can add some water during reheating as daal usually thickens once cooled. This dal can be stored in the fridge for up to three days in an airtight container.

Freeze this daal for up to three months in an airtight container. Defrost in the fridge overnight and heat thoroughly before consuming.

Top tip

When making the tadka, make sure you have all ingredients at hand as the process is swift, or else you might end up burning the garlic and spices. It would help evenly slice the garlic for the tadka, resulting in even cooking and colour.

Why wash and soak daals? Firstly, this helps remove unwanted residues, chemical or otherwise. Also, soaking daals make them more digestible, reduces bloating, and makes their nutrients easier to absorb. Red lentils or masoor dal doesn't take too long; just about two hours is enough. All other lentils like split pigeon peas, yellow split dal and moong beans take overnight soaking to help them cook faster.

Food Safety

In a professional kitchen, food hygiene and safety is a top priority, and from the very beginning of training, I practised good habits and routines. Of course, it is also very, very important to practice good food hygiene and safety at home. Here are some fundamental practices to adopt in the kitchen.

  • Wash your hands regularly while preparing, handling and cooking food
  • Wipe down counter tops and high contact points regularly
  • If you cook meat and fish, do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat. Use separate chopping boards for meat and fish. Wash your chopping boards immediately after use.
  • Thoroughly cook food to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
  • Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods (more than 2 hours)
  • Store food correctly

For more details on food hygiene and safety in the home, visit the UK Government's Food Standards Agency webpage.

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Blog author behind lavender plant
Chef Tripti

Hi! Tripti here. I am a Michelin-trained chef with over 20 years of experience in the industry. My mission is to help you cook fresh, nutritious food with simple recipes that deliver creativity and taste—food with heart and soul.

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