Spiced with Madras curry, this red lentil soup takes only six minutes in the Instant Pot. Serve it with yogurt, and fresh cilantro.

Red lentils sit in a gallon-sized glass jar in my cupboard. Fragile and thin, they cook in the blink of an eye, melting into a delightful puree. One of our favorite ways to use them is in classic masoor dal. You can serve it over rice, or with flatbread, but sometimes I enjoy just sipping dal on its own, flavored with yogurt and fresh cilantro.

The blessing of this red lentil dal is that it comes together in nearly an instant. And when you're pressured after a long day at the office, or sandwiched between errands, it's nice to toss all the ingredients together in the pressure cooker, and have a nourishing meal that's ready in only a few minutes.

Making Red Lentil Dal in the Pressure Cooker

Dal is traditionally prepared by toasting spices, and simmering lentils slowly until they soften and break down. That slow simmering helps infuse lentils with the rich and robust flavors of spices like coriander, cumin, ginger, fenugreek, fennel, chiles and black pepper. A pressure cooker cuts that time down to just a few minutes, and a swirl of Madras curry sauce, which blends grass-fed ghee with spices, gives this almost instant version all the flavor and richness of a traditional, slowly simmered dal.

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8 servings

Easy Instant Pot Red Lentil Dal

Spiced with Madras curry, this red lentil dal takes only six minutes in the Instant Pot.

Prep Time5

Cook Time6

Total Time11

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Ingredients

1 medium yellow onion
2 cups red lentils
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
6 cups bone broth
3 tablespoons Madras curry sauce
yogurt to serve
chopped cilantro to serve

Instructions

Place the onion, red lentils, chicken broth, salt and Madras curry into your pressure cooker. Pressure cook for six minutes, and then allow the pressure to release naturally.
Puree with an immersion blender, and then serve warm with additional curry sauce.

Curry in a Hurry

Not only is this Red Lentil Dal take only a few minutes in the pressure cooker, and a prepared Madras curry sauce makes it even faster. It's a exquisitely robust simmering sauce made with grass-fed ghee, olive oil, turmeric, ginger and other spices.

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