Dal Bhat
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The taste of Nepal

Sounds boring? We thought so as well. But it is not at all and now, while writing this post – I am craving some lentils. Rice and lentils taste always the same but the rest varies depending on what the people harvest at the moment. Pumpkin, potatoes, tomatoes, branch of veggies we didn’t know from home – imagination is the limit. Dal Bhat is healthy, cheap and fills you up for the whole day. Additionally, if you order it in any food place you can be sure that your plate will be refilled several times. You have to be very persuasive to refuse another top-up.

Nepalese people say: Dhal Bat power 24 hours! That’s why, if we were asked the question from above, our answer would be: Dal Bhat. Take a look at the Dal Soup recipe which we created from our Nepalese experience of cooking together with the locals:

• Rinse the lentils
• Put them in a pot (in Nepal everyone are using pressure cookers but we bet it will work in normal one)
• Add water (around 5 cm above the lentils level), turmeric, curry powder and salt
• Cook until the lentils are soft but they don’t fall apart (in pressure cooker – cook until the steam whistle out of the pressure cup 5 times)
• Let it rest (roughly 30 min – prepare curry in that time)
• Fry cumin seeds, chillies, cloves and garlic
• Add some Soup on the pan, mix it together
• Pour the mixture into the pot
• Add some hot water for the consistency (soup should be rather creamy and all the ingredients should be evenly distributed throughout the liquid)
• Enjoy!

We think it will be great as a normal soup, served with some bread. But if you want to have a full Dal Bhat experience we recommend to eat it with rice using your hands instead of the fork. That’s how the Nepalese people do it.