Vegan Dal Makhani with Cheesy Garlic Pita Bread

You know that dinner moment when you're craving a specific dish and then realize: you should've soaked something yesterday, the chopping takes half an hour, and then the whole thing needs to simmer for an hour. Today we're showing you how we made such a recipe more dinner-friendly. The original recipe: Dal Makhani with vegan garlic cheese naan. It would actually be a recipe where you'd need to soak dried lentils and beans the night before. But with a few shortcuts, we've turned it into a 40-minute recipe.

What is Dal Makhani and why is it usually so elaborate?
Dal Makhani comes from North Indian cuisine and traditionally consists of black lentils (Urad Dal) and kidney beans. The authentic recipe isn't for the impatient though, because the lentils need to be soaked overnight and then simmer relatively long separately from the other ingredients on low heat, until everything comes together and needs some more time together. Traditionally, real charcoal is used at the end to give the dish its characteristic smoky note. If you want to try that, we recommend the recipe from Cook with Manali.

Our shortcuts:
We used black lentils and kidney beans straight from the can, which completely eliminates the soaking time and long cooking. We also use beluga lentils instead of Urad Dal since they're easier to find. We replaced the charcoal at the end with liquid smoke, which provides the smoky flavor.

Pita pockets as the savior of quick dinners
Dal Makhani is traditionally served with rice or freshly baked naan. We went one step further and thought about garlic cheese naan. For that, you'd normally have to prepare a small yeast dough, which naturally requires a bit more time. The shortcut for this is: pita pockets, which we fill with vegan cheese and brush with garlic butter after pan-frying – and all of it gluten-free.

We used the new glutenfreien Pitataschen from Schär which are made from rice flour, buckwheat flour, and sourdough. They're soft, don't crumble, and are therefore super easy to fill. Simply cut open, stuff with vegan cheese, and into the pan they go. Tastes just as good as garlic cheese naan, but ready in 5 minutes! If you want to try the new pita pockets yourself, you can become a member of the Schär Club and have the chance to win one of 200 sample packages.

If you're gluten intolerant yourself, you obviously know the following info, but if you're cooking for others, one last tip: definitely use a clean surface when cooking. Plastic and wooden surfaces often develop cracks where gluten traces can settle.