🇱🇰 Sri LankaCatalog recipe
Red lentils simmered soft in coconut milk with turmeric and curry leaves, finished with a crackling mustard-seed tempering poured on at the very end.
For 4 servings.
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Rinse the lentils until the water runs mostly clear; simmer with the turmeric, half the onion, half the garlic and enough water to cover by 3cm until soft and starting to break down, 12–15 minutes, skimming any foam.
Stir in the coconut milk and a good pinch of salt; simmer gently, uncovered, until thickened to a loose porridge, 8–10 minutes.
💡 Keep it at a bare simmer once the coconut milk goes in — a hard boil can make it split.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a small pan; crackle the mustard seeds, then add the curry leaves, dried chilies, remaining onion, garlic and green chili, and fry until the onion is golden.
Pour the sizzling tempering over the finished dhal and stir it through.
Taste for salt and serve hot alongside rice and the other curries.
Parippu appears at almost every Sri Lankan meal, the mild, coconut-softened dish that balances the table's hotter curries. The mustard-seed-and-curry-leaf tempering poured on at the end, called thel dala, is the technique that separates a properly finished dhal from a flat one.
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