This Bengali Cholar Dal is nutty with chana dal or split chickpeas, and it has an assertive but exquisite sweetness from coconut and raisins. It's a delicious, unique and comforting dal that's usually served at celebratory meals, but its simplicity makes it a great weeknight recipe.
What is cholar dal?
Cholar dal (chhola'r dal) is a Bengali style lentil recipe made with chana dal or split chickpeas ("chhola" in Bengali), coconut, jaggery and raisins. Bengalis also refer to it as narkel diye cholar dal, meaning chickpea dal with coconut, or niramish chholar dal, meaning vegetarian cholar dal.
The dal has an assertive sweetness from the fried coconut, raisins and jaggery, along with spiciness from chili peppers, which makes it unique even among a plethora of Indian dal recipes.
Recipes for Cholar Dal almost always start off by alerting you that this is a dish for special occasions, served at Bengali weddings or other celebrations. Its simplicity, though, tempts one to break that hallowed tradition and label this a dal perfect for weeknight meals. It is one of my favorite Bengali recipes and I'm so excited to share it with you.
Table of Contents
Why you'll love this recipe
- Easy recipe. The cholar dal recipe has a slightly long ingredient list compared to this Bengali dal with panch phoron. But it too takes just a few minutes to make after you've cooked the lentils. Get spices out of a jar, toss them into the saucepan, and you're done. All that deliciousness for so little work!
- Uniquely delicious. The mix of sweet and spicy makes this a dal to relish. Kids will love it and you will find yourself making it again and again.
- Nutritious. Lentils are great for you, of course, and even the sweetness in this dal comes from healthy sources--jaggery, an unrefined brown sugar, raisins and coconut. Like all dals, this chhola'r dal is loaded with fiber and protein.
- Soy-free, nut-free, vegan and gluten-free. This dal will work for most diets.
Ingredients
Check recipe card below for exact quantities of all ingredients.
- Chana dal (chhola/Bengal gram dal). Chana dal or split chickpeas come from brown chickpeas, not from the beige chickpeas we also call garbonzo beans.
- Bay leaves. These are added to the lentils as they cook and they impart a subtle but delicious aroma.
- Oil. Any neutral oil, including avocado oil, grape seed oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil or peanut oil, is fine. Use mustard oil if you have it because it's what would be used by a Bengali cook. Always allow mustard oil to heat to the point where it's smoking gently before adding the mustard seeds to it.
- Spices: Turmeric, black mustard seeds, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon sticks, ground cumin, ground cardamom, dried red chili peppers and garam masala.
- Ginger
- Raisins. Golden raisins are ideal, but black raisins will do.
- Fresh coconut or dried coconut. You will need small slivers of coconut for this recipe. You can find fresh coconut at health food stores like Whole Foods and some supermarkets. Dried coconut, called "kopra," can be found at Indian grocery stores. Either will work in this recipe. But if you can't source them, use ¼ cup of coconut milk instead and add it toward the end of cooking.
- Jaggery. This is an unrefined sugar. Piloncillo is a great substitute. Or use coconut sugar or any brown sugar.
How to make cholar dal
Wash the lentils and add bay leaves and turmeric. If cooking the lentils in an Instant Pot or in the pressure cooker, add three cups water. If you're cooking the lentils in a saucepan, soak them first for a few hours, drain, then add bay leaves and turmeric and enough water to cover by two inches.
Cook until the lentils are soft and tender but are still holding their shape. This will take 10 minutes on manual pressure in the Instant Pot, four whistles in an Indian style pressure cooker, and about 40 minutes on the stovetop.
Heat oil in a saute pan or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the mustard seeds and wait for them to sputter.
As soon as the mustard begins to crackle, add the spices for the tempering --cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and red chillies. Saute for a couple of minutes until the cardamom is puffy and lightly colored.
Stir in the coconut slices or pieces and saute for a couple of minutes until the coconut slivers are lightly golden.
Stir in the ground cumin and ground coriander and mix.
Add the raisins and grated ginger to the pot. Mix and saute until raisins are puffy.
Pour in the cooked lentils or dal with a cup of cooking stock or water. Mix well and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cover with a lid and let the lentils simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the jaggery to the dal and stir it in.
Finally stir in the garam masala powder. Mix well and let the dal simmer for five more minutes or until it has a fairly thick consistency with little visible water. Serve hot.
Serving suggestions
- Cholar Dal is typically eaten with luchis -- small, puffy, deep-fried breads made of refined flour. You can serve the cholar dal with pooris, which are very similar but are made with whole wheat flour, which makes them healthier.
- You can also make rotis to scoop up the dal with.
- Serve the cholar dal with rice and with a vegetable side like Aloo Posto and an Indian lime pickle.
Storage instructions
- Refrigerate: Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to four days.
- Freeze: Place in a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to four months.
- Reheat: Thaw and reheat the dal in the microwave or on the stovetop. Add a little water and check for salt if needed.
Recipe FAQs
This is a Bengali chana dal recipe and chana dal is the star here. You simply won't get the true flavor and experience of a cholar dal without it. Sorry, but this is not an ingredient you can substitute in this dal.
Although it has some jaggery and raisins in it, these are unrefined sugars and the dal is very healthy. It has just 137 calories, four grams of protein and seven grams of fiber in each serving.
Sure. To make an Instant Pot cholar dal, use the saute function for steps 2 and 3. Add the uncooked, washed chana dal to the liner with three cups water and cook for 10 minutes on manual pressure. Let the pressure release naturally or force-release after 10 minutes. Remove lid, return Instant Pot to saute function, and continue with step 5.
More Indian dal recipes
If you love this cholar dal, check out other Indian vegan recipes at Holy Cow Vegan!
Cholar Dal
Ingredients
- 1 cup chana dal (chhola or split Bengal gram lentils)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 6 cloves
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 1- inch stick cinnamon
- 2 dry red chili peppers (broken into pieces or left whole)
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- ¼ cup fresh or dried coconut (cut into slivers of small pieces. If you can't source this, see recipe notes for how to substitute with coconut milk.)
- ¼ cup golden raisins
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 tablespoon jaggery (or coconut sugar)
- ½ teaspoon garam masala
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Wash the lentils. Add turmeric powder and bay leaves. If you are using an Instant Pot, cook the lentils with 3 cups water on manual pressure for 10 minutes. In an Indian style pressure cooker cook them for four whistles. If using a saucepan, soak the lentils for several hours first. Discard the water, add fresh water to cover the lentils by a couple of inches, and bring to a boil. Let the lentils cook at a simmer, covered, until they are soft and tender but are still holding their shape.
- In a saucepan, heat the oil. Add the mustard seeds and, when they sputter, add the cloves, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick and red chili peppers. Saute a minute until the cardamom looks puffy, then add the slivers of coconut, if using, and saute until the coconut is lightly golden brown. Watch carefully because coconut can burn quickly.
- Add the raisins and ginger, saute for 30 seconds, then add the coriander powder and cumin powder. Mix.
- Pour in the cooked lentils or dal with a cup of cooking stock or water. Mix well and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cover and let the lentils simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the jaggery and mix it in. Follow with the garam masala. Mix well and let the dal simmer for five more minutes. It should have a rather thick consistency with little visible liquid. Serve hot with steamed rice or poori.
Recipe notes
- If you can't source fresh coconut or dried coconut, use ¼ cup coconut milk instead. Add it to the saucepan after the garam masala and just before you turn off heat in step 5.
- Refrigerate: Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to four days.
- Freeze: Place in a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to four months.
- Reheat: Thaw and reheat the dal in the microwave or on the stovetop. Add a little water and check for salt if needed.
Gauri
Thanks for this delicious recipe, Vaishali! It's easily one of my favourites, and I've lost count of the number of times I've made it 😀 Yours is one of my favourite food blogs too!
Vaishali
Hi Gauri, that is so lovely to hear. Thanks for those kind words, and for letting me know you loved the dal! 🙂
Nabeeha
I just made this at home in DC for kids' lunch - because what we know is that most South Asians is that may of us are overflowing with daal and basmati rice, which makes for great food security in times of crisis. 🙂 I wanted to let you know that I added sweetened shredded coconut (the kind in the baking aisle). I am a fan of coconut and didn't have any unsweetened shredded - I also didn't have to add sugar or jaggery as the sweetened coconut was enough. I added it to the pan where I was cooking the bay leaves, mustard seeds, etc. then added to the daal mix. Delicious stuff and thank you!
Nicolette Chartier
Hi Vaishali, I just put together the ingredients in this recipe and am now simmering everything. please review this recipe, there are some inconsistencies between the ingredients list and the directions. not sure if I was supposed to add cloves or not so I did. love your recipes!
Paul
Looks like a fantastic recipe. But can you really feed 8 people with 1 cup chana dal? Im going to make dal for 15 people, nit sure how much to use?
Vaishali
I would use 2 1/2 cups. Remember it's dry dal you start out with and will expand.
Monique
What an amazing recipe! Who knew you could fry raisins?! Thank you very much. And I'm curious, how did your dog help you to become vegan? Because you love him so much, and he's an animal, so you can't conceive of eating other animals either? Just slap me down if you think I'm being too nosy...
Vaishali Honawar
Hi Monique, yes, it was my first dog, Lucy, who set me on the vegan path, and it was because when I lived with her I started to realize just how smart and sensitive animals are. It felt hypocritical loving Lucy so much, and contributing to killing other animals-- probably just as smart and sweet-- so I could eat them.
Ruth
I finally got around to making this over the weekend and it will be my new favourite and quick (thanks to the pressure cooker) go-to meals. I doubled the recipe (but not the coconut milk) and left out the jaggery to cut down sugar. It is still richly satisfying and oh so delicious. Thank you so much for this recipe.
Rosalie Livingstone
I made this for lunch today and really enjoyed it! I cooked the dhal in a pressure cooker and it took 6 minutes. I had the dhal ready before the rice was cooked! I'm going to write this up on my blog with a link back to your recipe as I enjoyed it so much. Thanks for all your inspiration, I've never been great at Indian cooking and since discovering your blog I've lifted my game a lot! 🙂
Vaishali
Rosalie, so happy you enjoyed the dal, and thanks for letting me know. 🙂 thanks also for your kind words.
Rosalie Livingstone
Hi Vaishali , just to let you know I wrote this up on my blog today, with credit to you and a link to your blog, so I hope you get some traffic from it. 🙂
Sims
Hi! I just made this recipe for my packed lunch for the week. I have to say that I am so excited for this week because it tastes so good. When I was making the recipe, I noticed that you did not mention where to include the grated ginger while cooking. I added mine just after adding the coconut milk and it seems fine. Anyway, thank you for such a lovely recipe. I am really glad I have discovered your blog.
Vaishali
Hi Sims, sorry about that-- you'd add the ginger with the raisins. I've added it to the recipe now. Glad you worked it out, and so glad you tried the dal! It is definitely one of my favorites. Happy lunches! 🙂
Sheela
Hello Vaishali,
Happy to see many new blog posts. This Dal post of yours reminded me of your whole masoor dal with toasted spices recipe as I tried it vey recently. Although, had bookmarked the recipe a while ago.
The recipe was so delicious. It took very less time to cook as well. I am a sucker for such short and sweet recipes.
Thanks for sharing!
A big hug!
Sheels
BTW I barely get to read about our four legged friends...All good?
Vaishali
Hi Sheela, how lovely you tried that masoor dal. It was one of the first posts I put up on Holy Cow-- more than 6 years ago -- and that remains one of my favorite dals to make. I can slurp it up by the bowlful. 🙂 I am a sucker for short and sweet recipes too. A big hug right back to you. 🙂
Indhu
Hi Vaishali,
I haven't commented in a long time. I still check your site frequently for recipe inspiration. Had to stop and say hi and thank you for the changes you have made to your site. Looks very nice and loads up fast. For a while it would load really slow and that had been my only issue. One more thing, there have been a few times when I have wanted a particular recipe and it would so happen you would have posted just a day prior! One that comes to mind is the pecan pie. I haven't tried it yet but will one of these days.
Vaishali
Hi Indhu, so lovely to hear from you again, and I love the feedback-- thank you! I am happy the pages are loading faster. That was exactly what I was hoping for, so readers would have a better experience. And what a sweet coincidence that I was almost reading your mind on the recipes. 🙂 Well, you've got no excuse-- go, get cooking! Haha. 🙂 Just kidding.
Meg
Hello Vaishali,
Your things are always inspiring and i haven't had a flavour failure yet! Good pics too, thx Desi
Looking forward to cooking with you both lots more
Warm wishes from Meg in NZ
Vaishali
Hi Meg, thanks so much for your kind words, and a big hug to you! 🙂 I will be sure to share your compliment with Desi, and hope you will try some of the recipes at Holy Cow!
glutenfreehappytummy
sounds so delicious!
Vaishali
Thanks!
Raquel @ My California Roots
I really just need to get out of my comfort zone and start making your food because it all just sounds so delicious! I'm just scared of the foreign-to-me Dal's! Maybe this weekend.
Vaishali
Hi Raquel, As much as I cook, I struggle with getting out of my comfort zone too at times, often because of a bad memory of a food or because I am not sure how something will taste. Dals are a great way to "break into" Indian cooking. They are usually simple and always delicious. This one's super easy, so it would be great to start with. Happy cooking! 🙂
Toya
Hi vaishali,I love this dal preparation so much. I am from Orissa ,and at every festival or family gathering,channa dal is cooked in different ways .we frequently make it with Indian pumpkin or with lauki. You will be surprised how much channa dal is consumed in Orissa and Bengal. Your recipe is just perfect and just adore your blogsite so much.
Vaishali
Hi Toya, you are so sweet-- thanks for your kind words! Chana dal is so amazing and I can see why the folks in Bengal and Orissa love it so much-- I am going to cook with it even more now than I did before, esp. this Cholar Dal. 🙂 I love the idea of adding pumpkin to it-- seems like the flavors would be perfect together.
Crystal
Hi, your response will be too late as I’m making this tonight but in case I like it..the instructions refer to cloves but there is no mention of cloves in the recipe. Help!
Vaishali
Hi Crystal, four cloves--sorry about that,some recent updates to the recipe plugin have caused a few old recipes to drop ingredients. I've updated it now. The dal should still be tasty without them.
Lisa H
I just spent a day cooking Indian dishes earlier this week and wish so much I had this recipe! I love dal, which I often eat for breakfast because it is so filling. I am looking forward to trying your version!
Vaishali
Hi Lisa, dal for breakfast sounds like a great idea-- can't think of anything healthier to start the day with! And hope you try the dal when you cook Indian next. It's really quite a breeze to make. 🙂