Easiest Red Lentil Dal (Instant Pot)

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.