Parippu
Sri Lankan Dhal Curry (Parippu)
Also known as Sri Lankan red lentil curry, Sri Lankan dal curry, coconut dhal, tempered dhal, parippu curry
Dhal curry is the dish Sri Lankan families cook most. At home we call it parippu. You simmer small red lentils until they turn soft and creamy, then stir coconut milk through them. Last of all you fry onion, garlic, mustard seeds and curry leaves in hot oil and tip the whole sizzling panful on top. That last bit is called the temper, and it is the part that makes everyone look up. If you only ever learn one Sri Lankan recipe, learn this one. You will see the name spelled dhal, dal or daal. It is all the same bowl.
Also in our Southern collection.
The lentil curry Sri Lankan families cook more than any other. It is cheap, it is quick, and it is on the table in about half an hour.
- Total time
- 35 min
- 10 min prep · 25 min cook
- Serves
- 4 people
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Spice level
- Mild
- Country help
- USA · UK · AU · CA substitutes included
CeylonCooking
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Sri Lankan Dhal Curry (Parippu)
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About This Dish
Ask anyone in Sri Lanka what they ate yesterday. Parippu will be on the list. It is cooked in millions of homes, day after day, and nobody tires of it. The word parippu just means lentils, so the dish is more a habit than a recipe. A pot of red lentils. A little turmeric to turn them gold. Coconut milk to make them creamy. Then that spoonful of sizzling spice tipped over at the end.
That sizzling spice is the temper, or thel dala in Sinhala. It is onion, garlic, mustard seeds, curry leaves and a broken dried chilli, all fried in coconut oil and poured over while it is still spitting. That one move is the whole difference. Without it you have a pot of boiled lentils. With it you have parippu. The coconut milk gives the dhal its soft, faintly sweet body, and the curry leaves fill the house with a smell that tells everyone dinner is close.
Good parippu is loose and silky. It should pour off a spoon, never sit in a stiff lump. It is meant to be mild, and that is the point. Its job is to be the calm thing on the plate beside the fierce ones: a hot pol sambol, a sharp lunu miris, a peppery meat curry. Spoon it over rice. Scoop it up with hoppers. Eat it plain with a fried egg. It is comfort food at its simplest, and it quietly teaches you how Sri Lankan cooking is put together.
The Temper Is the Whole Point
Plenty of countries boil lentils. What makes this pot Sri Lankan is the temper, the thel dala, that goes on at the end. Here is how it works. Heat a small pan of coconut oil, then drop in one mustard seed to test it. When that seed pops, the oil is ready. In go the onion, curry leaves and dried chilli, with the garlic held back until the last moment. Once it is golden and smells wonderful, pour the whole hot panful straight over the dhal. It hisses. That hiss is the flavour going in.
Tempering is a way of cooking, not an ingredient. It works because hot fat pulls out smells and tastes that plain boiling never reaches. Mustard seeds turn nutty when they pop. Curry leaves crackle and let go of a lemony scent. Onion softens, then goes brown and sweet at the edges. Learn this one move and you can use it on all sorts of other dishes, because the same thel dala finishes a great many of them.
What It Should Taste Like
Silky and full of coconut, with a savoury hum from the curry leaves, onion and mustard seeds. It is mild on purpose. Parippu is the calm bowl that sits beside the fiery sambols, not one of them.
Ingredients
This recipe makes 4 servings. Change the number and every amount below updates with it. Substitutes for hard-to-find items are in the sidebar.
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Cook the Lentils
- Red lentils (masoor dhal)washed until the water runs clear1 cup
- Water2 cups
- Ground turmeric½ tsp
- Pandan (rampe)optional5 cm piece
- Curry leaves1 sprig
- Thin coconut milktinned coconut milk mixed half and half with water1 cup
- Thick coconut milkthe creamy layer from the top of the tin½ cup
- Salt1 tsp
- Limeoptional, squeezed over at the very end½
The Temper (Thel Dala)
- Coconut oil2 tbsp
- Onionfinely sliced, or 4 to 5 shallots½
- Garlicsliced, and it goes in last2 cloves
- Mustard seeds½ tsp
- Curry leaves1 sprig
- Dried red chilliesbroken2
- Chilli powderoptional, for colour and a little more warmth¼ tsp
Method
Five steps, and none of them are hard. The lentils cook while you get on with something else. Only the temper in step 3 needs your full attention, and that is over in about a minute.
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- 01
Wash and Simmer the Lentils
Wash the lentils in a bowl of cold water. Swirl them with your fingers, pour the cloudy water away, and do it again until the water runs clear. Tip them into a pot with the water, turmeric, pandan and curry leaves. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes, lifting off any foam that floats up.
Washing matters far more than it looks. Dry lentils carry a fine floury dust. Let it into the pot and the dhal turns gluey and a little bitter. Four washes is about right. After that, keep the heat low, very low. Red lentils have no skin on them, so they cook fast and fall apart on their own. Watch the pot turn gold as the turmeric spreads through the water. Listen as well. A hard bubbling boil should settle to a slow blip. The pale foam on top is only starch, so lift it off with a spoon and the finished dhal tastes clean. To check they are ready, press one lentil against the side of the pot with the back of your spoon. It should squash to a smooth paste with no hard bit left in the middle.
Tip: Wash the lentils until the water is properly clear, not just once or twice. That cloudy water is starch, and starch is what makes a dhal gluey.
- 02
Add the Thin Coconut Milk
Pour in the thin coconut milk. Stir it gently and let it cook for another 5 minutes on low heat. It will look runnier than you expect. Do not worry about that.
This is the first of two milks, and it does the quiet work. Thin coconut milk is mostly water. It loosens the lentils and lets the coconut taste soak all the way through the pot instead of sitting on top. The dhal will look thin at this stage, which is fine. The thick milk goes in later and brings it back together. Keep the heat low the whole time. You want the lentils and the milk turning into one thing rather than two. When you can no longer see where the lentils stop and the milk starts, move on.
Tip: No fresh coconut? Mix tinned coconut milk half and half with water and you have thin milk. Keep the thick creamy layer from the top of the tin for the end.
- 03
Make the Temper
Heat the coconut oil in a small pan. Drop in one mustard seed, and when it pops the oil is hot enough. Add the rest of the mustard seeds, then the onion, curry leaves and broken chilli. Fry for about a minute until the onion turns golden at the edges. Add the garlic for the last 30 seconds only.
This is the step that makes a kitchen smell Sri Lankan. The oil has to be properly hot, properly hot, or the mustard seeds will not pop, and that popping is your signal the temper is alive. The curry leaves spit the second they hit the oil and let out a lemony smell. The onion softens, then goes brown and sweet at the edges. The dried chilli warms the oil gently rather than making it fierce. The garlic waits until the end, and that order is the bit to remember. Sliced garlic burns long before onion is anywhere near golden, and burnt garlic turns the whole pot bitter with no way back. Thirty seconds is all it needs. Pull the pan off the heat the moment the onion gets there.
Tip: Have a lid ready. Mustard seeds jump out of the pan as they pop. And once the oil is hot the whole thing is over in a minute, so stay by the stove.
- 04
Pour the Temper over the Dhal
Tip the hot temper, oil and all, straight into the pot of dhal. Stir it through gently.
This is the best moment of the whole recipe, and it only works while the temper is still sizzling. That heat carries the toasted smell of mustard seed, curry leaf and browned onion down into the lentils. Otherwise it just floats on the surface. Scrape the pan out so you get every drop of the oil, because the oil is where the taste is. Stir slowly and you will see gold streaks marbling through the pale dhal. A slick of reddish oil will sit on top. That shine is meant to be there, so do not stir it away.
Tip: If the temper cools down before you get to it, warm it for a few seconds first. A cold temper just sits on the surface as a greasy film and the smell stays in the pan.
- 05
Finish with Thick Milk and Serve
Stir in the thick coconut milk and the salt. Warm it through for 5 minutes on the lowest heat you have, and do not let it boil. Take it off the heat, squeeze over the lime if you are using it, and leave it to sit for a couple of minutes before serving.
The thick milk is what turns the pot creamy at the last minute. Keep the heat low here. Coconut milk is fat and water held together, and a hard boil pulls the two apart into grainy flecks. You want the surface just moving, never bubbling. Taste it now rather than earlier. The fried onion and chilli shift the seasoning, and lentils drink up far more salt than anyone expects. The lime is optional and it earns its place. Acid cuts through coconut fat, so a small squeeze lifts a pot that has gone a bit heavy. Add it off the heat, because boiled lime juice goes dull. Then leave the dhal alone for two minutes. It thickens a little as it cools and settles into the pourable texture you are after.
Tip: If it goes too thick while it rests, loosen it with a splash of hot water. Parippu should pour off the spoon, not sit in a stiff mound.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Boiling the coconut milk hard. It splits. You get grainy flecks and a slick of loose oil instead of a smooth gravy. Coconut milk is fat and water held together, and a rolling boil pulls them apart. Turn the heat right down so the surface barely moves.
- Washing the lentils twice and calling it done. That cloudy water is starch, and starch is what turns a dhal gluey and slightly bitter. Four washes, not two. The water has to run properly clear first.
- Burning the garlic in the temper. The whole pot tastes bitter afterwards and there is no fixing it. Garlic cooks much faster than onion, so let the onion go first and add the garlic for the last 30 seconds.
- Letting the curry leaves catch. Fried gently they turn lemony and fragrant. Taken a shade too far they go sharp and bitter, and that bitterness rides straight into the dhal when you tip the oil in.
- Adding too little salt, then panicking and adding too much. Lentils soak up far more salt than anyone expects, so the first taste always seems flat. Add it little by little, and taste only after the temper has gone in.
- Skipping the temper. Then it is boiled lentils. The thel dala is not a decoration on top, it is the step that makes the dish Sri Lankan.
- Cooking it down too far. Parippu should pour off the spoon. If it sits in a stiff mound, stir in hot water or a splash of coconut milk and it comes back.
- Using a plain oil for the temper. It still works, and you lose the coconut note that sits under everything else. If you have coconut oil, this is the dish to use it on.
Serving Ideas
- Plain white rice, which is the classic and still the best. The rice is dry and the dhal is loose and rich, so the grains drink the gravy up instead of sitting in a puddle of it.
- String hoppers, where the dhal sinks into all those tiny steamed strands and seasons the whole nest rather than sliding off the top.
- Pol roti. Tear a piece, scoop, repeat. The coconut in the roti and the coconut in the dhal are the same note twice. And the roti is sturdy enough not to fall apart mid-scoop.
- Spooned over hoppers at breakfast. Proper comfort first thing. The crisp lacy edge of the hopper against soft lentils is the contrast that makes it work.
- With a fried egg and rice for a quick dinner on your own. The runny yolk does much the same job as more coconut milk, for a lot less effort.
- Beside a sharp lunu miris or a fiery meat curry, where the contrast is the whole point. Parippu is mild on purpose so it can be the calm thing on a plate of loud ones.
- Loosened into a soup. Add more water and a little more coconut milk, warm it through gently, and eat it from a bowl with bread. Not the usual way to serve it, and it is what a lot of leftovers turn into.
Sri Lankan Dhal Curry is one of the courses in our beginner rice and curry menu, our vegetarian rice and curry menu and our seafood rice and curry menu, if you want the whole plate rather than one dish.
Storage and Make-Ahead
It keeps for 4 days in the fridge in a sealed box, and it thickens a lot as it sits. Loosen it with a splash of water or coconut milk when you warm it up, and keep the heat low so the coconut milk does not split. It freezes well for up to 2 months.
Two Ways to Cook It
Leave out the pandan and the dried chilli. Use one cup of tinned coconut milk thinned with water, and skip the thick milk at the end. Keep the temper to onion, garlic and curry leaves. You still get creamy lentils and that tempered smell with as few ingredients as possible. Do not worry, it is still proper parippu.
Press your own coconut milk and use both pressings. The thin one cooks the lentils and the thick one finishes them, which is what this recipe is built around. Add a split green chilli and a pinch of fenugreek seeds to the pot, and make the temper in coconut oil. That is the fuller parippu you would find simmering in a village kitchen.
Lighter and Healthier Version
Parippu is already a light, plant-based dish. The coconut milk and the tempering oil are where nearly all the richness sits, so a few small swaps keep it creamy while trimming the fat.
Lighten the Coconut Milk
Use light coconut milk, or add more water to the thin milk. The dhal still comes out creamy, because most of that creaminess comes from the lentils themselves.
Ease off the Temper Oil
Make the temper in a non-stick pan with 1 tbsp of oil instead of 2. You still get the popped mustard seeds and the fried curry leaf smell on half the fat.
Lean on the Lentils
Red lentils are high in protein and fibre and filling on their own, so a generous bowl with only a little rice still fills you up. The lentils do the work here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Parippu is the Sinhala word for lentils, so in English it simply means lentil curry. In Sri Lanka it nearly always means this everyday dish: red lentils simmered with turmeric and coconut milk, then finished with a pan of tempered spice. You will also see it written dhal, dal or daal. Same thing every time.
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