This Dal Biryani recipe is adapted from one of the Telugu cooking shows that I recently watched. I really loved the idea of using dal in biryani, it makes it a complete dish with the required carbs, protein and fat. It is filling and delicious to boot.
The original recipe was for ‘Panchratan Dal Biryani’ with 5 different legumes. But I remember a nutrition expert on one of the other cooking shows saying that ‘adding more good things to a dish is not necessarily good for health’. She mentioned that using a lot of different beans/ nuts/ oils/ seeds (anything for that matter) slows down the body from absorbing the good nutrients from each of the ingredient. I don’t know if that is true or not, but I used only 3 legumes – Chickpeas, Adzuki beans and Moong beans. But the recipe is versatile and any sturdy legume that doesn’t become mushy when cooked can be used.
This dish requires a little bit of prep work and makes quite a few dirty dishes, but the end resuly is well worth the effort. I’m getting a hang of making layered biryanis these days and I truly enjoy the process of making them. This dal biryani is now going to be on my Biryani rotation.
