When zucchini is abundant in the summer, I love adding it to this delicious Indian style zucchini dal. It is simply flavored with curry powder and you can serve it with basmati rice and/or roti.
Table of Contents
What is zucchini dal?
My zucchini dal is an Indian-style dal flavored with a few simple spices, including black mustard seeds, turmeric and curry leaves. I created this simple dal as a weeknight recipe. It comes together very quickly and needs just a few pantry ingredients in addition to zucchini.
Zucchini was not, until recent years, a vegetable eaten or available in India. But its mild flavor makes it a convenient substitute for Indian summer squashes like bottle gourd, and I've adapted it to many Indian dishes, including this vegan zucchini halwa and zucchini kofta curry. When I grow zucchini in my garden, I use the blossoms to make zucchini blossom pakoras.
When cooked with dal, the zucchini melts into the lentils and absorbs the flavors of the tomatoes, onions and spices. And because zucchini is such a nutritional powerhouse, it makes the dal that much more nourishing.
I gave this zucchini dal a south Indian flair, with coconut oil, curry leaves and a dash of curry powder. You can add some coconut milk to finish it off and make it creamier but I leave it out because the dal is very delicious as it is.
This dal can be made with nearly any summer squash, including pattypan squash and yellow squash. If you can source bottle gourd (dudhi), ash gourd (white pumpkin) or ridge gourd (turai), all available in India and Indian stores here in the U.S., you could use those instead of zucchini.
Love a hearty Indian dal? You might enjoy these recipes for vegetable dhansak, slow cooker butternut squash dal and this simple but exquisite yellow lentil dal.
Recipe card
Easy Zucchini Dal
Ingredients
- 1 cup toor dal (also called tuvar dal, arhar dal or split pigeon peas)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
- 10-12 curry leaves
- 2 green chili peppers
- 2 medium tomatoes (finely diced)
- 2 medium large zucchini (diced into ½-inch chunks)
- 1 tablespoon curry powder (or sambar powder)
- Salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons cilantro (finely chopped)
Instructions
- Cook the dal with turmeric and enough water until really soft and mushy. This is easily done in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot, but you can also do it on the stovetop. Whisk the cooked dal so it becomes creamy.
- Heat oil. Add the mustard seeds and wait until they sputter and crackle. Add the curry leaves and green chili peppers. Saute for a few seconds. Then add the tomatoes and saute for 2-3 minutes until tomatoes are soft. They don't have to turn mushy.
- Add the diced zucchini and saute for five minutes until the zucchini is slightly tender.
- Add the dal. Don't add water at this point unless the dal is really dry. The zucchini will express a lot of liquid.
- Bring the dal to a boil, cover, and cook for five minutes. Add more water at this point if dal is too thick.
- Stir in curry powder. Add salt to taste. Sprinkle on the cilantro and turn off heat.
- Serve hot.
Notes
- To make the dal oil-free, sputter the mustard seeds and sauté curry leaves and green peppers in a dry pan. Then add tomatoes and proceed.
- Substitute the toor dal with moong dal or masoor dal if that's what you have.
Nutrition Information
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How to make zucchini dal
- Cook the lentils: Cook toor dal with turmeric powder and enough water until really soft and mushy. This is easily done in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot, but you can also do it on the stovetop. Whisk the cooked dal so it becomes creamy.
- Make the tempering. Add the mustard seeds and wait until they sputter and crackle. Add the curry leaves and green chili peppers. Sauté for a few seconds. Then add the tomatoes and sauté for 2-3 minutes until tomatoes are soft. They don't have to turn mushy.
- Saute zucchini: Add the diced zucchini and sauté for five minutes until the zucchini is tender but still has a bite.
- Add the dal to pot. After adding the dal, wait a few minutes before adding any more water to the pot because the zucchini will express a lot of liquid. Bring the dal to a boil, cover, and simmer at the lowest heat setting for five minutes. Add more water at this point if dal is too thick.
- Stir in curry powder and cilantro. Add salt to taste. Sprinkle on the cilantro and turn off heat.
Zucchini dal FAQs
Yes. Sputter the mustard seeds and saute curry leaves and green peppers in a dry pan. Then add tomatoes and proceed.
Any dal can be eaten with plain white or brown rice and/or an Indian flatbread. This zucchini dal is perfect paired with a summery flatbread like mint paratha or grilled naan. Serve an Indian lime pickle or vegan cucumber raita on the side.
Leftovers can be refrigerated for up to four days. Freeze the dal in a freezer-safe container for up to four months. Reheat in microwave or stovetop. Dal tends to thicken as it stands, so add more water if necessary. Add more salt if needed.
Katy says
This was great. The mustard seeds gave a totally different taste to zucchini, which I can get tired of in the summer. I used half curry leaves and half bay leaves because the curry leaves alone can be too strong for me. Definitely will make again
in2insight says
Looks like an awesome recipe and am making it now.
Had to guess about how much water and cook time for the Dal.
Perhaps you can add that info as well for those of us new to cooking with this Dal?
Vaishali says
Awesome! If you're pressure cooking add about three cups of water for each cup of dal. If doing this on the stovetop make sure you add enough water to cover the lentils by two inches and top off with more water as needed if it cooks out before the dal tenderizes.
in2insight says
Thank you so much!
Cooking lesson learned and practiced.
This is a great and easy recipe.
Simple yet lovely flavors (and no onion which is wonderful) that melt in the mouth.
Yummy
Vaishali says
Awesome, so happy you loved it! One of my favorites for sure. 🙂