It’s zucchini season, we are talking so many zucchini that we are running out of ideas on how to use the veggie. Enter this comforting daal that uses up two entire zucchinis. With the lovely aroma of spices and onions fried in oil and made all creamy with daal and zucchini, this is a winner of a recipe.

About the recipe

As I mentioned we are in peak zucchini season which means they are so cheap that we come home with tons of zucchini. What to do with so many? I’ve made cakes, muffins, soups, salads and now added zucchini to daal. You know what? Zucchini is delicious in daal!

Zucchini adds lots of veggie goodness and just blends into the background creating a delicious creamy veggie loaded daal.

The recipe is simple and easy

Cook lentils in the instapot. While lentils are cooking, shallow fry onions in a pan. Add in spices such as cumin, coriander and turmeric. Add in tomatoes if you have, plus shredded zucchini. Cook the veggies until tender. Then add in the cooked daal. Daal is ready. It’s that easy.

Zucchini Daal

Ingredients:

2 zucchini shredded
1 onion chopped
1-2 green chilies if you like
1 tomato chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
Salt
1 cup any daal of your choice – moong, toor, yellow daal. Cook according to package directions. Set aside.
Fresh cilantro for garnish
Juice of 1 lemon
Oil

Directions:

Warm 2 tbsp oil in a pot. Add the cumin seeds and let them turn golden brown in the oil. Then add chilies and onions and shallow fry until onions are tender about 2-3 minutes. Add in cumin powder, coriander powder and turmeric.

Add in tomatoes, plus shredded zucchini. Stir the veggies into the spice mixture and continue to cook the veggies for a 5 minutes until the tomatoes and zucchini are tender.

Add the cooked daal plus salt to taste and bring to a low boil for about 5m minutes. Dhal is ready.

Taste and adjust for salt. Squeeze of lemon juice and garnish with fresh cilantro. Daal is ready.

Serve zucchini daal with rice for a comforting dinner.