Dal Makhani (Creamy Black Lentils)

I've recently gotten into cooking Indian food. For a while, I thought that cooking high quality Indian dishes at home would require too many obscure ingredients I could only find on Devon Street, but I've discovered that just owning the right spices is enough to make some great dishes. Probably nothing I post here could be considered authentic, but you can actually make this in your own kitchen. For my Dal Makhani, I took a pretty major short cut by buying precooked lentils at Trader Joe's. As a result, this Dal Makhani only takes about a half hour to make.

Dal Makhani
Serves 4-6


1 box Trader Joe's steamed lentils
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 of an onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup half and half
Salt and pepper


1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in large saucepan. Add onions and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add garlic and saute 1 minutes. Be careful not to burn garlic.
3. Add chili powder, ginger, cumin, turmeric, and red pepper and saute one minute more.
4. Add tomato paste and vigorously mix to combine.
5. Add pre-cooked lentils to tomato sauce. Cook about 10 minutes.
6. Reduce heat to low, add half and half and cook 5 minutes more.
7. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.

I served the Dal Makhani with rice and Aloo Mutter