Cook Your First Dish in Degchi: Split Chickpea Lentils (Chana Daal)

Why chana daal makes a good first dish

Some recipes punish you for looking away. Chana daal is not one of them. It is split chickpea lentils, simmered soft with turmeric and finished with a garlic and cumin tempering. The recipe card calls it Easy, and it serves four. It is slightly sweet and nutty, thicker and heartier than red lentil daal, and it is a classic with plain rice or roti.

It also happens to be a good way to see how Degchi's cook mode works, because it has six steps and every one of them has a timer. This walkthrough follows the recipe exactly as it appears in the app.

What you need

On the recipe page the ingredients show a green Have or a red Out against your pantry, so you know before you start. The amounts below come in both units. Tap the Metric or US switch to change them.

• Split chickpeas: 250 g, or 1 1/4 cups
• Onion: 1, sliced
• Tomato: 1
• Garlic: 5 cloves
• Turmeric: 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin seeds: 1 teaspoon
• Clarified butter (ghee): 3 tablespoons
• Salt: to taste

The card says 60 minutes in total, with about 15 for preparation and 45 for cooking. Need more or less? Change Servings with the plus and minus buttons and the amounts scale.

Cooking it in cook mode

Tap Start cooking and Degchi opens one step at a time, in big type, with the screen kept awake. Here is what each screen asks of you, with its timer.

1. Soak. Wash the lentils and soak them in water. The timer is 30:00. This is the longest wait, so start here.
2. Boil. Drain, then boil with the turmeric, salt and 4 cups of water until soft. The timer is 25:00.
3. Fry the onion. In a separate pan, fry the sliced onion in ghee until golden brown. Timer: 5:00.
4. Cook the masala. Add the chopped tomato and cook until it turns pulpy and the oil separates. Timer: 5:00.
5. Simmer together. Pour the onion and tomato mixture into the boiled lentils and simmer for 5 minutes. Timer: 5:00.
6. Temper. Heat ghee, add the cumin seeds and sliced garlic, and pour it over the daal. Timer: 1:00.

Each step shows a timer with Start, -1 min and +1 min. If your lentils need longer to soften, press +1 min rather than guessing. When a timer finishes, Degchi raises an alarm notification, even if the phone is locked or the app is in the background, so you can step out of the kitchen for a minute without losing track.

Hands full? Turn on read-aloud

The small line at the bottom of the screen says "Wet hands? Turn on read-aloud". Switch it on and Degchi reads each step out loud in your app language, which helps when your hands are covered in turmeric. You can still tap Next step or Back at any time.

Two tips from the recipe

The recipe carries two tips, and both are worth following:

• Chana daal keeps its shape more than red lentils, so cook it a little longer for a soupier texture.
• A pinch of sugar balances the earthy taste.

If you like the flavour, spiced chickpeas and a quick chickpea salad are close cousins, and the same pantry covers most of them.

Why timers help a new cook

New cooks usually get stuck on timing, not technique. Degchi turns the recipe into a short list of single steps, shows you what is missing from your pantry before you begin, and lets timers do the watching. The step screens are in the language you chose, and we never show ads in cook mode.

If you want to see how a cook-mode session works in detail, read the guide to cook mode and step timers. To understand the amounts and servings on the recipe page, see Reading a Degchi Recipe.

Cook it tonight

Degchi is in beta and free. To try this recipe in cook mode, join the Degchi beta with your Gmail address on the homepage and we will let you know when you can install it.