Recipe for slow cooked Dal Bukhara, ITC style made with black urad dal – black lentils. With step by step pictures.
I am from a perfect Sambar eating South Indian family where yellow lentils are mainstay. We never cooked with black lentils. The first time I had black lentils – Dal Bukhara was in a North Indian restaurant in Mountain View, CA. Dal Bukhara was a revelation. Dal Bukhara was rich, hearty and delicious. Dal Bukhara is a velvety smooth dal. Dal Bukhara was a perfect vehicle for Indian Naan and Roti. Dal Bukhara is a slow cooked black lentil simmered in a tomato based sauce for hours. The world famous ITC Bukhara restaurant in Delhi slow cooks the Dal Bukhara on wood fire for at least 18 hours. Their Dal Bukhara is ultimate. Dal Bukhara is based on a very simple recipe. Dal Bukhara just needs to cook for a long time to get that velvety smooth texture and taste on the dal.
Soak the Black urad dal in water over-nite. Then pressure cook the dal until soft and set aside. Use 3.5 cups of water for every cup of dal in a pressure cooker. It should take about 6-7 whistles or 15 minutes on medium flame.
Take a very heavy bottomed pan. We are going to slow cook the dal. So its important the sauce doesn’t get scorched at the bottom. Heat the pan with a tablespoon of oil and add in the cumin seeds and the cinnamon.
Add in the onions and fry till soft. About 3 minutes on medium flame. Add in the ginger garlic paste and briefly fry for a minute.
This sauce is a tomato based sauce. So make sure you pick ripe tomatoes. We need a good 7-8 tomatoes. Run the whole tomatoes in a blender and add it to the pan.
Immediately, add in the chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder and the salt.
Add in the cooked dal.
To the dal, add in 500 ml of water.
Now, reduce the flame to the lowest possible. Cover the pan with a lid and let it simmer for one hour. Keep stirring every 10 minutes to avoid the dal scorching at the bottom.
After one hour, the dal would have become creamy and thick. Slightly mash everything with a potato masher here and there for a creamy dal.
Add in 1/2 a cup of cream and 3-4 tablespoon of butter. Now don’t skip this step. This is what makes this dish what it is. Simmer briefly for a minute and remove the pan from heat. Dal Bukhara is ready.
Serve Dal Bukhara hot with roti, chapati.
Here is a printable Dal Bukhara recipe.
PrintITC Style Dal Bukhara
Recipe for slow cooked Dal Bukhara, ITC style made with black urad dal – black lentils. Measurements Used – 1 Cup = 250ml
- Total Time: 2 hours 20 mins
- Yield: 6 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup Urad Dal
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 2 sticks cinnamon
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 1 pod garlic and 2 inch piece ginger, pureed to a paste with 1/4 cup water
- 8 Tomatoes
- 2 teaspoon chilli powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1.5 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup cream
- 3 tablespoon unsalted butter
Instructions
- Heat the pan with a tablespoon of oil and add in the cumin seeds and the cinnamon.
- Add in the onions and fry till soft. About 3 minutes on medium flame. Add in the ginger garlic paste and briefly fry for a minute.
- Run the whole tomatoes in a blender and add it to the pan.
- Immediately, add in the chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder and the salt.
- Add in the cooked dal. To the dal, add in 500 ml of water.
- Now, reduce the flame to the lowest possible. Cover the pan with a lid and let it simmer for one hour. Keep stirring every 10 minutes to avoid the dal scorching at the bottom.
- After one hour, the dal would have become creamy and thick.
- Add in 1/2 a cup of cream and 3-4 tablespoon of butter. Now don’t skip this step. This is what makes this dish what it is. Simmer briefly for a minute and remove the pan from heat.
- Serve hot with roti, chapati.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Category: Gravy
- Cuisine: Indian
Forgot to rate it!!!
Tried the Dal Bukhara recipe for dinner yesterday. It came out very well and my wife enjoyed it. It was finger licking yummy!! Thank you so much for all the recipes and your blog has become one of my favorites. God bless you.
Dal Bukhara has this only simple 5-6 ingredients i.e. the Dal itself, unsalted butter, ginger-garlic paste, kashmiri chilly powder, tomato puree, salt, and cream to garnish which actually makes its texture very creamy.
Think of this ingredients and try making the recipie in ur mind.
Fake Dal Bukhara recipe. Dal Bukhara just has 7 ingredients
Urad dal
Tomato
Ginger
Garlic
Kashmiri lal mirch powder
Cream
Unsalted butter
+ Salt to taste
Dal Bukhara has no onions
Jaiswaminarayan
Suguna,
Thanks for recipe dal Bukhara it’s new I tray very good test thanks again 🙏
Mamta.
Thank you so much!
I tried the recipe and it was great. One info I would like to share Rajiv Dixit mentioned that onion and milk/cream should not be mixed …not healthy but I dont have much data, others may comment
I miss the dal at Bukhara in Delhi. We would go with a group and get several orders and get the Naan bukhara which is huge and devour all of it every time.
Thank you for recipe and description with pics! What Mountain view restaurant did you try this?
Thanks Pat! Its Amber.
So excited to try this recipe! My urad dal is soaking and I am just going to bed. Cooking in my sleep 🙂