Daal Baati healthy (and meal-prep friendly) recipe

Daal-Baati is a traditional Rajasthani Indian dish. It is essentially daal-roti with a twist.
The daal is made mixing a few varieties and the dough (with a few additions) goes into making thick dinner-roll like versions of roti i.e. the baati. It is a protein delight and a fancy take on the routine daal and roti. Read on to find how simple and easy this daal-baati recipe is and how my version actually makes it a perfect meal-prep item too!

Ask husband to buy:

For Baati:
– Multigrain wheat flour or any flour of your choice; you could opt for gluten free too
(1 cup of flour roughly makes 3-4 baatis. So adjust the quantity of flour as per your requirements. 2 baatis per serve are really filling)
– Ajwain seeds
(called ajowan caraway or carom seeds in English)
– Salt as per taste
– Baking soda 1tsp
For Daal:
– Quarter cups each of toor daal, split moong daal, split masoor daal, chana (split gram) daal, split urad daal
(This will make enough daal for 8 servings or so. And if one or two daals are missing in your pantry, don’t sweat it. Go ahead and make it with what you have!)
– Ghee (clarified butter) 1/2 tbsp or Butter or vegan butter to turn the dish vegan
(for tempering the daal and a little more to brush over the baati)
– 1 large onion fine chopped
(extra if you like onions like I do)
– 1 large tomato fine chopped
– 1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped
– 6 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
– 2 green chillies fine chopped
– 2 dried red chillies
– Cumin seeds 2 tsp
– Asafoetida, 1 pinch
– Turmeric 1-2 tsp
– Daal-makhani masala 2 tsp
(you can skip this if you don’t have it at hand)
– Garam masala 2 tsp
– Fresh coriander for garnish
For the surprise potato delight:
– Potatoes
(you roughly want half a large potato or one small potato for one serve per person)
– Onions, small-chopped
(this is repeated because this stash is for the potato delight that is the ‘something extra’ for your daal baati. You would need about 1/4 half onion to go with one serve of the potatoes)
– more green chillies, fine-chopped, to add to the potatoes, if that is what you prefer
– Cumin powder 1/2 to 1 tsp
– Salt as per taste

This is how we do it:

• Wash the potatoes to remove any dirt and keep the skins on. Pierce them randomly with a fork and brush the surface with some olive oil.
  (Just follow the steps to be done in short time, it will all come together)
• Now place the potatoes in the oven to roast at 200°C. This should take roughly 30 minutes or so. When they are a little soft when poked with a fork, they are done.
  (Keep checking on them)
• While the potatoes are roasting, wash the five daals till the water runs (relatively) clean. Now chuck them in a pressure cooker and add roughly 4 cups of water. Also add, salt and turmeric.
  (The recipe)
• To use the pressure cooker, bring the water to boil first at full flame. Then turn the flame to medium once the pressure cooker begins to make clear and loud fizzing sounds.
  Turn the gas off after about 12 minutes. Open the cooker after it cools down a little*.
• Alternatively, the daal can be made in a deep-bottomed pan, similar procedure of bringing the water to boil first and then letter the daal simmer till it becomes soft. The pan method takes longer though, and your girl got no patience for that!

• Heat a deep bottomed pan and add 1 tbsp olive oil and wait till it is just hot enough.
• Add cumin seeds and if the cumin seeds crackle, the oil is hot enough. Add a pinch of asafoetida and chopped ginger and garlic and sauté for a minute or so till the raw smell of ginger and garlic fades a little.
• Add chopped coriander and sauté for a few seconds. Add as much as you prefer. For this quantity of daal, about 1/4 cup of chopped coriander would be a good proportion.
  (This is a neat little trick. Adding coriander at this stage imparts so much flavour to the daal)
• Now add the chopped onions and sauté them till they are pink and translucent. Add chopped green chillies and chopped tomatoes to this and sauté for another 5-7 minutes till the tomatoes are soft.
• Add this tempering to the daal immediately and mix well. If you think the daal is not thin enough for your liking, add some water and thin it down while turning on the flame again.
  (Be careful not to get the splatter on yourself when adding the tempering to daal. Do it with extended hands and keeping your face away from this whole affair)
• Garnish with chopped coriander just before servin
• For the baati, take a big vessel and pour all the dry ingredients, i.e. the flour, ajwain seeds, salt and pinch of baking soda and mix with your hands.
• Now add just a little bit of water and start to knead. Just when it begins to bunch up and become all lumpy, add some olive oil to it and continue kneading.
  (Honestly, I would just youtube how to knead a dough in general on Youtube, if this concept is alien to you.)
• Once a firm and slightly soft dough is done, cover it with a clean tea-towel and keep it aside for ten minutes.
  (This helps the dough become supple)
• After ten minutes, make golf ball sized dough balls of the dough. Gently press them only a little so that they look like patties.
  (The ones in my pictures are the patties the size of my palm)

• Preheat the oven for 10 mins at 180-200°C.
• Brush all these patties with a little olive oil on both sides and place them in the oven tray, separate from each other.
• Check on the baati after 5 mins and flip them all.
• After another 5-7 mins, they should be slightly darker in colour and will be cooked. Take them out*.
• Be careful that they don’t turn too brown, because the baatis burn quickly and easily.
• Bring the baatis out and let them cool a little.
• Peel the roasted potatoes. For one serving, take half a large potato, and mash with a fork.
• Add chopped onions, chopped green chillies (as per your taste and preference; skip the chillies if you find it too hot), cumin powder, and salt to the mashed potatoes. Mix it well.
• The daal freezes well and in cooler non humid weather, keeps in fridge for a couple of days. The potatoes once roasted, stay in fridge for a few days too; when serving, just heat up the potatoes in the microwave and they are ready to be mashed. The baati is super easy to make any time and also stays well in fridge for a couple days.

This is important: How to serve and enjoy it the right way!

The baati is conventionally dipped in ghee and then served with the daal. But we all know I ain’t doing that.
Compulsive people like me will want to layer it in a shallow bowl and eat it like lasagne:
– Break the baati into bite-sized pieces and spread across the bowl.
– Pour the daal on it. Daal should be enough to drown all the pieces of baati.
– Then scatter the potato mixture in a layer over it all.
So when you eat, dig into all the layers so that each bite includes all the 3 components of this dish; for maximum taste explosion.
DO NOT forget to heat everything up very well so that all the flavours come out perfectly.

Cheat Sheet*

*I make the yellow daal-tadka the same way too. In routine daal, I would just replace the 5 daals with either toor daal or split moong daal, or a mixture of toor and split moong daals. The magic is in using fresh chopped ginger and garlic.

*husband always comes through getting the timers and checking oven items every time.

Where’s the hygge?

I have loved this dish since childhood. My mum makes it different to how I make it, but the bomb potato surprise – that is completely her! The dish is like a hug in a bowl (I know they say that about soup but I mean come on! This is a full meal needing you to actually chew and everything!). The hygge for me is all the daal goodness and all the childhood memories it brings. The simplicity of the dish paired with how well it fits into meal prep, now that takes the hygge up a few notches! Oh and did I say it can turn into a vegan recipe and gluten free recipe super easily? I mean, do I need to give you more reasons!