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Pressure-cook Dal the No-Mess, No-Fuss Way ! And Save Water too…

Millions of housewives know that pressure cooking is much faster than open pot cooking, and many Indian homes cook their dal and chawal in their pressure cookers. This faster cooking translates into about 52% saving of LPG gas when compared to cooking in an open pot (for more details, see here).

A problem many housewives face when pressure-cooking dal is that sometimes the dal froths excessively and shoots out of the Vent Weight (‘Whistle’). This phenomenon, called frothing or ‘dal sprouting’, can make a mess of the cooker and the kitchen!

Some dals (such as Moong dal and Tuvar dal) have a natural tendency to froth and spout more vigorously than others. What is not so well-known is just how much water is wasted each day across the Nation because of this common problem, as many housewives may tend to compensate for the water that will be lost to frothing during cooking by adding more water than is required at the start.

The Hawkins Test Kitchen has through trials developed 7 simple steps to minimise dal sprouting (given below), saving the housewife time, trouble and precious water too.

Pressure Cooking dal saves Water too!

As pressure cooking cooks much faster and uses a sealed pot that traps and cooks in steam, more water tends to be saved than when cooking dal in an open pot. The following table shows how much water is required for cooking some popular dals in a Pressure Cooker vs an Open Pot.

Dal	Dal Qty	Water Quantity		% more water required in Open Pot vs Pressure Cooker
Dal	Dal Qty	Pressure Cooker	Open Pot	% more water required in Open Pot vs Pressure Cooker
Tuvar Dal	1¾ Cups / 350g	4¾ cups / 1.1L	7 cups / 1.7L	54.5%
Moong Dal	1½ Cups / 300g	4¾ cups / 1.1L	6 cups / 1.4L	27.3%
Rajma (Soaked Overnight)	2.5 Cups / 500g	6¼ cups / 1.5L	10 cups / 2.4L	60.0%
Kabuli Chana (Soaked Overnight)	2.5 Cups / 500g	6¼ cups / 1.5L	10 cups / 2.4L	60.0%
Average Saving	-	5.5 cups / 1.3L	8¾ cups / 1.9L	49.2%

From the above table, we see that open pot cooking requires about 49% more water than pressure cooking to give similar, acceptably cooked results for a variety of popular dals and beans. In other words, pressure cooking saves about 32% of the water that would be required to produce similar results when cooking these popular dals, when compared to open pot cooking.

How much Water can potentially be saved for India?

The scope of conserving water thus is immense: if even 10% of Indian households save 1 cup (240 ml) of water each day by switching to pressure cooking dal vs. open pot cooking, this would translate to about 7 million litres of water saved per day across the Nation.

This is worked out as follows: 10% of households = 2.94 crore households x 1 cup each = 2.94 crore cups x 240 ml per cup = 70.5 lakh litres = about 7 million litres of water saved per day.

7 Common Causes of Dal Sprouting

Loading the pressure cooker with too much dal.
Loading the pressure cooker with too much water.
Using a big burner for a small pressure cooker.
The Dal is not pre-soaked – it is only washed.
The required seasoning is not added to the dal before cooking.
After the pressure cooker reaches Full Operating Pressure (that is, the first whistle) the heat is left on ‘High’.
The pressure is released forcefully as soon as the Pressure Cooking Time is completed.

7 Simple Steps to Pressure Cook Dal Right!

The Hawkins Test Kitchen has, after extensive trials, developed an easy 7-step method by which you can safely cook your dals in your pressure cooker and minimise the chance of dal sprouting at the same time, by following 7 simple steps. No mess – and save water too! The 7 steps are given below. In this trial, a popular dal (Tuvar dal) has been selected in a widely-used size of pressure cooker (3 Litre).

Try it and see for yourself!

Pressure cooking can reduce normal cooking times by as much as half. Foods which take a long time to cook such as dal, pulses, dried peas, beans and tough cuts of meat can be cooked well in a fraction of the normal time. Because food cooks faster in a pressure cooker, you save time, fuel and therefore money.

See more useful tips for saving with pressure cookers below: