Potato Dill Stir Fry With Lentil
Jul 28, 2014, Updated Jan 02, 2018
Potato Dill Indian style stir fry with Lentil (moong dal) - great way to include protein in your diet + also vegan!
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Sometimes I get bored of cooking the usual veggies and one of the main reasons for that is that we do not get a lot of variety when it comes to buying vegetables here. Yes you do get all the so called “Indian veggies” at the Indian store but we usually buy the organic ones and those at Indian stores are not organic plus they never look fresh to me.
Anyway so every now and then I try to mix and match the available vegetables and come up with a different recipe so that we don’t get bored of eating the same stuff over and over again. Today’s recipe combines potatoes, dill and moong dal (petite yellow lentil). In hindi Dal = Lentil.
There are 3 types of green gram or moong dal that we eat in India – one is whole green gram which is green in color (moong sabut), the split unhulled moong dal which has a brownish skin (moong chilka) and finally moong dhuli or commonly known as moong dal which is what is used in this recipe. This one is yellow in color and the lentil is tiny compared to pigeon pea lentil (arhar/tuvar dal).
Lentils are a good source of protein so this recipe is a good way to add some protein to your diet. Moong dal cooks quickly compared to tuvar or chana dal hence you just need to soak it for few hours and it can then be added straightaway to the recipe.
Method
* Soak 3 tablespoons of moong dal in enough water for 3-4 hours or overnight. The dal will more than double in volume. Rinse and set aside.
* Clean and remove dill from their stem. Chop them finely and set aside
Heat oil in a kadhai/wok. Once hot add the methi (fenugreek) and cumin seeds. Once the seeds crackle add the chopped garlic and whole dried red chillies. When the garlic starts turning light brown add cubed potatoes and give it a good mix. 
Add turmeric and salt and mix so that all potatoes cubes are coated well with turmeric. At this point you can add other spices of your choice. Dill leaves have a strong aroma and so I do not like adding too many spices in this stir fry. In fact all I added was turmeric and salt!
Add the chopped dill leaves and soaked moong daal and give a good mix.
Cover and cook on medium flame till potatoes are soft and cooked and dal is tender. Add in the lemon juice and give a final stir. 
Switch off the flame and serve hot with roti or paratha.
* Adding lemon juice is optional, I like the tangy flavor it imparts to the stir fry.
* You can add onions/tomatoes in the recipe, I made it very simple with minimal spices and no onion or tomatoes.
Potato Dill Stir Fry With Lentil
Ingredients
- 2 potatoes medium
- 3 tablespoons moong dal petite yellow lentil
- ½ cup dill finely chopped
- 3 large garlic cloves finely chopped
- 2 whole dry red chilies
- ¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- salt to taste
- 2 teaspoons oil
Instructions
- Soak 3 tablespoons of moong daal in water for 3-4 hours or overnight. After soaking the daal will be more than double in volume. Rinse and set aside.
- Peel and chop potatoes into small cubes.
- Remove the stem of the dill, wash and chop them finely. Set aside.
- In a kadhai/wok heat 2 teaspoons of oil. Once hot add the fenugreek (methi) and cumin (jeera) seeds,
- Once the seeds crackle add chopped garlic and whole dried red chillies. Cook till garlic becomes very light brown in color.
- Now add the potatoes, dill leaves and soaked moong dal and give it a good stir.
- Add turmeric, salt and mix till everything is well combined.
- Lower the flame, cover the work and let it cook for around 10 minutes or till the potatoes and dal are tender.
- Switch off the flame, add lemon juice and give it a final stir.
- Serve hot with roti or parathas.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Great instructions and everyone loved it!
awesome! 🙂
Hi Manali, I hope you are well & keeping safe in the USA! I love the look of your recipes, & I’m not veggie or vegan LOL. I wondered how much onion & tomatoes you would add to this recipe & also, do I need to add extra spices if so what? if I add onions & toms. You said you kept it simple? I love lots of flavour & thought your idea of adding onion & tomato was a great one.
Thanks for sharing all your wonderful recipes with us all. I’ve cooked your Toor Dal and I can’t get enough of it. Such an amazing depth of flavour. Great side dish for Indian bbq’s with tandoori & tikka.
This is a simple stir-fry, I would suggest making something else from the blog with lots of onions and tomatoes and spices since there are so many such recipes on the blog! 🙂 IF you really want to make this with onion, tomato I would do 1 medium onion, and 2 medium tomatoes. You can add coriander powder, garam masala.