Black lentils vegan dal can easily conquer your taste buds. If you are new to cooking lentils, you can discover a rich variety of lentil recipes to satisfy your taste buds. Interestingly, lentils are a perfect cooking ingredient to make hearty soups and bake delectable desserts.
One of the unique features of lentils is that they are a powerhouse full of protein and fiber. And with this unique duet of ingredients, it is so much easier to get a sense of satiety and control blood sugar levels.
Did you know that chronic blood sugar spikes can result in insulin resistance and pimples and acne? To get a beautiful skin and control a healthy weight, lentils can be one of your go-to foods every day of the week. Besides, you can create a new easy recipe with the minimum ingredients that is flavorful and filling, too.
When we become aware of the nutrients each food holds inside, it becomes even so much more rewarding to cook with them!
Creative Lentil Recipes For Any Stage of Woman’s Life
Delicious lentil recipes can be so unique, yet full of flavor and aroma. The trick is to add your favorite herbs and spices. In addition, try your hand at a rich collection of aromatic spices from different cuisines. Experiment and find what your taste buds respond to.

I am cooking with lentils regularly. Besides, I have a variety of lentils on hand: beluga or black lentils, green lentils, red and yellow lentils, brown lentils. Each type of lentils is great for this or that recipe. But I experiment with recipes all the time. As the result of my long-time cooking with lentils, I have developed a sense of what goes well with vegetables and other grains and even fruit.
Here are the links for the recipes that will give you an idea how creative and rich the world of lentils can be in your own home meal prep.
Lentil Stews and Soups
Instant Pot Lentil Vegetable Stew
Sausage Lentil Soup with Kale
Lentil Chicken Soup in Pressure Cooker or Instant Pot
Mushroom Lentil Stew

Gourmet Lentil Pizza Crusts
Grilled Almond Lentil Pizza Crust
Lentil, Zucchini, Tomato Tart with Feta Cheese

Healthy Lentil Desserts
Double Chocolate Beet and Lentil Cake
Creamy Blueberry, Lentil and Lime Popsicles

How to Make a Delicious Dal Makhani Meal
What you need to remember is that black lentils are very easy and fast to cook. Within an hour, you can have a family meal ready to welcome with its aroma and unforgettable taste.
Coming form Punjab, India, this black lentil dal is a delicacy that comes with health benefits. Protein, fiber, calcium are just some of the important nutrients every person has to have for normal functioning.
Makhani means “butter” in Indian. So, you are here for a real treat to dive into one of the unique recipes ever.

Blooming Your Spices for the Dal Recipe
This recipe preparation is easy. But first, you are to temper your spices in the butter before you begin cooking the beluga lentils.
Indian cuisine is known for aromatic herbs and spices galore. But a well-kept secret of their taste is in blooming spices, also called tempered spices.
To get the aroma out of the herbs and seeds, you need to bloom them in fat. As the majority of spices are fat-soluble, cooking them in fat first allows the aromatic compounds to reveal themselves, i.e., bloom. The butter in our recipe is the fat base where you are going to put all the spices, one-by-one, in order to receive the complex aromas conducive to such a unique taste.

In fact, only when you are done with the initial step of blooming the spices, you can put the rest of the ingredients into a pan and finish the cooking of the Punjabi Dal Makhani recipe.

Black Lentils Vegan Dal
This super aromatic and full of flavor black lentil dal recipe is bursting with benefits of protein, fiber and calcium.
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp butter or oil or ghee
- 1 medium onion chopped
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 1 Tbsp fresh ginger chopped
- ½ tsp garam masala skip if you do not have it
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 3 garlic cloves chopped
- ½ tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 5 cups water
- 1 cup fresh chopped or canned tomatoes
- 1 cup black lentils, also known as Beluga lentils
For Plating
- 4 tsp butter
- 2 Tbsp heavy cream
Instructions
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Heat butter or oil. Add onions and saute them for about 3 minutes.
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Add cumin seeds to onions. Begin to bloom this spice in butter for another couple of minutes.
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Add ginger, garam masala (if you use it), turmeric, coriander, garlic, chili powder and salt to the onions. Continue the blooming process for about 3 minutes to introduce all the aroma complexity into the onion mixture.
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Add water to the dal mixture.
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Add tomatoes to the water mixture. Stir carefull y to spread all the ingredients evenly within the mixture.
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Add Beluga black lentils to the watered dal and bring to a boil. Then, reduce to a low simmer, cover with a lid, and cook for 45 minutes.
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When you plate Beluga lentil dal into a bowl, add a teaspoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of heavy cream. Stir with a spoon. Enjoy this incredibly aromatic Indian recipe in the comfort of your home.
44 thoughts on “Black Lentils Vegan Dal Makhani Recipe Rich In Protein And Fiber”
I had heard of lentils being used in soups but I didn’t know they could be used in such a variety of dishes 🙂
Renata,
Lentils take on the flavors of other ingredients you cook with, like herbs, veggies, and berries, if it is a dessert.
Really delicious in so many ways. And so healthy with the protein and fiber, plus potassium and iron being at the top of the list.
So yummy, this is actually one of our favorite ones! And that lentil cake, never thought of using these in a cake, we have to try that one out for ourselves.
You see, you just discovered how to make living at home more delicious!
Such a lovely presentation. I know that we dont ussually cook lentils but looking how simple this can be done through your steps can be just a one step cooking away.
Papa Jack,
I call this dish a ONE-POT Recipe. The only difference from a usually one-pot thing is that you need to place ingredients in steps.
The most important one is to bloom the spices. Oh, so delicious!
You can definitely do it.
I lined up all the ingredients in the order they go into ONE POT!
Lentil pizza crusts?! Sounds so good!
Yes, lentil pizza crust is possible with any lentils. Vegan and vegetarian and so tasteful.
I love how you make any food guilt-free. I’m saving this recipe for later 🙂
Wanna know a quick trick for a guilt-free meal?
I’ll let you in: I actually make a plan for our meals for the next week during the weekend.
It’s a quick list ideas. I just take into consideration ingredients I want to use and think of potential recipes.
Sounds like a complex process, but it kept me sane. As I have an answer for “Mom, what are we eating today?” every day!
I love lentil soups! This looks like a perfect comfort food type of meal.
I have been SO BORED with food lately, I would so be down for trying this recipe. Thanks!
This looks so good and healthy. Thank you for sharing.
Jackline,
This is one of my favorite recipes that I can make any day of the week.
Really tasty and adds a healthy amounts of PROTEIN AND FIBER into our diets.
Kristen,
This is the way to go, if you wish to try something new in taste and texture.
In addition, you can make this recipe a bit thicker or more like a soup.
I even make the consistency of it as a good dip. My kids and hubby really enjoy it with their favorite almond or lentil crackers.
Such a delicious and healthy midweek family dinner idea. I just saved this to my to try list. Can’t wait to make this.
Natalie,
I like Indian cuisine for its spices and cooking with different herbs, grains and unique flours.
Test this recipe in the comfort of your kitchen. I hope you’ll be pleased with the taste of this Dal Makhani.
Yum…this looks so tasty and delicious…. I mostly love to have black lentils vegan dal makhani… and this recipe is of a different type i will definitely love to try it soon…
Definitely try it out.
I experiment with this recipe all the time.
There are slight variations to the recipe, and I make sure I experience them!
I love eating Lentil beans! I would love to try this recipe out as it looks delicious!
It is one of my favorites, as I can experiment with flavors and consistency in how liquid it is.
You can make a soup or a stew or even a dip out of it!
I had never heard of dal before until I went to see a specialist who recommended that every day for a month, I have dal soup along with some other unusual foods and exercises. This specialist made such a difference in my health. Every time I see a dal recipe I think of that time in my life.
Lisa,
There are many recipes for DAL. However, all of them call for blooming the spices. And I really got a hang of this process which makes each dal recipe to live for.
I love how comforting and flavorful it looks!
Toni,
One of my go-to recipes for dinner time.
I had no idea you could do so much with lentils! Desserts?!? Thanks for the info.
Jordan,
Lentils are infinite in their way to be prepared.
What is really cool is that they can take on almost any flavor. That is why any savory or sweet dish has so much flavor in them.
I just learnt about blooming spices. This is an educative post.
Emjhay,
Glad it was informative.
Now, you can try it in your own kitchen when cooking with spices.
My family loves lentils. I am sure this will be our new favorite lentil recipe. Looks amazing!
Catalina,
Your family is living a life with a professional chef every day!
I would like to spend a week in your home to eat all the foods you cook. Every day.
I’ve been wanting to try cooking with lentils but haven’t gotten around to it since I have a picky eater in my household. Such great health benefits.
Black lentils is yummy! Im craving in black lentils now, im going to try one of the recipe tomorrow.
Sherry,
Try this recipe. Of course your picky eater may complain, but it’s worthy of a test.
I love making lentils for the family. It’s a great source of vitamins and nutrients for the kids.
Fatima,
I am with you: lentils add an incredible amount of nutrients that today’s diet is void of.
Yumm this looks so tasty!!! I love black beans so much! thank you so much for sharing this. I will have to try making it
Bella,
Black lentils have quite a handful of benefits that would add to black beans.
In addition, they are cooked faster!
We love lentils. My daughter has been eating lentils since she was 6 months old and loves them. I will definitely try the lentil pizza and other foods you shared.
Ashley,
What a cool way to introduce lentils to your child!
Yes, try the recipes I listed in your own kitchen. All of them are easy and very quickly done.
oh yummmm!!! This looks so so good!!! I love lentils, not only it is good, it is also full of iron…Can’t wait to try this one.
Chad,
Thank you, my friend.
Lentils can be a cool experiment to include into a daily diet.
The variety of recipes is infinite.
I love making burgers with lentils. This is a recipe that I need to make as well as the lentil pizza crust.
Tara,
I am cooking with lentils galore these days. They are a great medium for so many dishes and recipes. From plant burgers to fritters, desserts and soups. Wow, I just adore my lentils collection!