One Sunday Pot of Daal, Three Different Dinners

Cook once, eat three times

Daal is one of the most useful dishes a family can keep in rotation. It is cheap, filling and gentle on most stomachs. The one drawback is boredom: eating the same bowl three nights in a row is hard to sell. The trick is to cook a plain base on Sunday and transform it, rather than just reheat it.

This post shows you a base recipe with US measurements, then three ways to turn it into different dinners. You can find the full daal recipe with a servings scaler on the recipe page.

The base pot (serves about 6)

For the daal

• 1 1/2 cups dried red or yellow lentils (masoor or toor are common choices), rinsed until the water runs mostly clear
• 5 to 6 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt, adjusted to taste

For the tarka

• 2 tablespoons oil or ghee
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 medium onion, chopped (optional)
• 1 or 2 dried red chilies, or 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 medium tomato, chopped

Keep the tarka separate in your head. The base pot stays simple so it can go in different directions.

Cooking the base

1. Put the rinsed lentils, water and turmeric in a heavy pot. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam.
2. Lower the heat, cover partly and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes for red lentils, longer for other types, until the lentils are completely soft. Stir now and then so they do not stick. A pressure cooker will shorten the time, but the time varies by cooker and by lentil type.
3. Add the salt and mash lightly with a whisk or the back of a spoon.
4. Prepare the tarka for tonight: heat the oil, add the cumin, garlic, onion and chilies, and cook until golden. Add the tomato and cook until soft. Pour into about one third of the daal.

Before you season everything, set aside the rest of the plain daal in a separate container. That is the part you will transform later.

Cool the reserved daal quickly, ideally within about two hours of cooking and sooner if the kitchen is warm. Spreading it in shallow containers helps it cool faster. Refrigerate it covered.

Dinner one: classic daal and rice

Serve the seasoned portion with rice, a wedge of lemon and a simple side such as sliced cucumber and onion. This is the familiar meal, and it is also the one that uses up the day's fresh tarka.

Keep a small amount of the tarka spices aside if you want to refresh the flavor later.

Dinner two: thick daal with a dry vegetable

On the second night, reheat about half of the reserved daal until it is steaming hot all the way through. Daal thickens in the fridge, so add a splash of water.

Make it feel different by:

• Adding a fresh tarka with extra garlic and a little more chili
• Finishing with fresh coriander and a squeeze of lemon
• Serving it with rotis or parathas and a dry vegetable like aloo gobi or palak paneer

The change in the side dish and the fresh tarka makes it a different meal. If you are not eating dairy, skip the paneer and use a chickpea dish or a simple potato fry.

Dinner three: quick khichdi

On the third night, use the last of the reserved daal as a head start for khichdi. Heat a spoonful of ghee or oil, add cumin and a pinch of turmeric, then add 1 cup of cooked rice (cooked fresh or kept safely, see below) and the leftover daal. Add enough water to reach a soft, porridge-like consistency and simmer for a few minutes.

You can also stir in:

• A handful of frozen peas or chopped vegetables
• A little grated ginger
• A spoonful of yogurt at the table

It is a warm, comforting meal that takes about 15 minutes, and it works well for children and anyone who is under the weather.

Other ways to change it

If your family likes variety, these also work with leftover daal:

• Soup. Thin with stock or water, add a few vegetables and blend if you like. Finish with lemon and black pepper.
• Stuffed paratha. Cook the daal down until quite thick and use it as a filling.
• Daal chilla. Add a little gram flour and spices to thick daal and cook it like a pancake. The texture depends on the daal, so adjust with flour until it holds together.
• A sauce for rice and vegetables. Spoon over roasted potatoes or cauliflower.

Storing and reheating safely

Daal is easy to store, but it is a cooked, moist food, so treat it with care.

• Cool it promptly and refrigerate it in covered containers.
• USDA guidance is to eat cooked leftovers within three to four days. If you are cooking on Sunday, aim to finish by Wednesday or Thursday.
• If you want to keep it longer, freeze portions on day one or two. Frozen daal keeps well, and you can thaw it overnight in the fridge.
• Reheat until it is steaming hot throughout. The USDA recommends reheating leftovers to 165 F (74 C).
• Only reheat the portion you plan to eat. Repeated cooling and reheating is not ideal for safety or for flavor.

Rice has its own rules. Cool it quickly and use it within a day if refrigerated. Our guide to storing rice and daal safely explains this in more detail.

Make it fit your week

Here is a loose pattern for a family that cooks on Sunday.

Day	Meal
Sunday	Daal and rice
Monday	A different dish, such as aloo keema or an egg dish
Tuesday	Thick daal with parathas and a vegetable
Wednesday	Quick khichdi
Thursday	Freezer meal or something fresh

Leaving a gap between the daal meals helps with variety. It also means you are not eating the base more than twice in a row.

If you track your kitchen in Degchi, you can mark lentils and rice as low when the packets run down and let the app add them to your shopping list. A paper list works equally well.

Common mistakes

• Not rinsing the lentils. Rinsing improves the texture and flavor.
• Salting too late. Adding salt near the end is fine, but make sure you taste at the end.
• Leaving the pot on the stove overnight. Cool and refrigerate promptly.
• Over-thinning. Add water gradually when reheating.

The Sunday daal plan in short

• Cook a base pot and set aside a plain portion.
• Change the flavor each night with a fresh tarka and a new side.
• Cool, refrigerate and eat within three to four days, or freeze early.
• Reheat to steaming hot.
• Use up the last portion as khichdi, soup or paratha filling.

One pot, three nights and no one complaining of boredom. That is a good Sunday.