Daal makhani is a Punjabi dish, popular across Pakistan wherever Punjabi food is cooked, made from whole black urad lentils (sabit urad) and kidney beans, slow-cooked with butter, cream and tomato for hours until the lentils break down and the gravy becomes thick, dark and velvety. The dish was popularised by Punjabi migrants in Delhi and Karachi in the mid-20th century. The traditional method calls for the dal to simmer overnight on a dying fire (dum), the long cooking being essential to the creamy texture. The name makhani (buttery) refers to the generous amount of butter and cream stirred in at the end. The dish is rich, dark, and filling, served with naan or rice at celebrations and restaurant dinners.
Dark, thick, velvety and deeply savoury, each spoonful coating the mouth with creamy lentil and butter richness, the tomato adding a faint tang. Eaten with naan, it is one of the most satisfying lentil dishes in South Asian cooking.
The technique is a very long simmer that breaks down whole lentils into a creamy mass. Whole black urad lentils and kidney beans are soaked overnight, then cooked in water with salt for 2 to 3 hours until completely soft. A tomato-onion-ginger-garlic masala base is prepared separately in butter, added to the lentils along with more butter and cream, and the whole simmered for another hour. The long cooking and the fat from butter and cream give the characteristic velvety, rich texture. The dark colour comes from the black urad skin. The traditional overnight dum method is replaced by a pressure cooker in modern kitchens (20 minutes instead of 3 hours), but the slow version is superior.
Variations
Some add paneer. A lighter version uses less cream.
On the Palate
Where Daal Makhani Pakistani sits in the Pakistani flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
5 steps · 20 min
- 15 min
Soak 200g whole black urad lentils and 50g kidney beans overnight; drain.
- 28 min
Cook in 1.5 litres water with salt for 2.5 hours until completely soft (or 25 minutes in a pressure cooker).
Watch outCook the beans until they smear to a paste between your fingertips — skip this and no amount of later simmering gives that creamy body.
- 36 min
In a separate pan, fry 1 chopped onion in 50g butter until golden; add ginger-garlic paste, 2 chopped tomatoes, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chili powder.
- 45 min
Combine the masala with the lentils; add 100ml cream and another 30g butter.
- 56 min
Simmer uncovered 30 minutes until thick and velvety; serve with naan or rice.
Watch outSimmer uncovered another half hour until it coats the spoon and turns glossy with fat — that's when it's velvety.
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