Soak the horse gram dal for at least 8 hours. I soaked it for about 10 hours.

After 8 hours drain the water and grind it along with one garlic clove into a coarse paste by adding water. I used about ½ cup of water.

Chop the kale, tomatoes and green onions and set aside.

As this recipe doesn’t involve pressure cooking, I am going to combine the stove top and instant pot method.

If using IP, set it to sauté mode and add oil. If using stove top method, heat a heavy bottom vessel and add oil.

When the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds. As it starts to splutter, add the tomatoes and cook for a minute.

Then add the chopped kale, green onions and all the dry masalas – turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and salt too.

Mix them all and cover and cook for 5 minutes. For my IP, I used the glass lid for covering. You use the IP lid too and use steam mode. But I just went with regular cover and cooking method.

Once the kale has shrunken, add the ground horse gram dal paste and 2 cups of water.

Mix them and let it simmer on low flame for 5 minutes. Make sure you stir the dal for every one minute to avoid the dal browning up.

After 3 to 4 minutes, add the remaining water and cilantro. Bring it to one boil and turn of the heat.

That’s it. Gahat ki phaanu is ready. Serve hot with rice.