The mango season now is on full thrust in Bangladesh. If you are lucky to visit Bangladesh now, you will be welcomed with delicious, sweet, “gach paka” (well ripe) different varieties of mangoes! In Bangladesh, we not only eat sweet mango, but also eat green mangoes in different ways – like pickles, chatni, curry etc. Today’s recipe is one of the green mango recipe with lentil.

We need daal and green mango (of course) and few spices, like paach phoron, nigella seed, bay leaf, onion, garlic etc. Today I used 1 cup of red lentil and one big(palm size) green mango. If you like your lentils a bit sour then you can use more mangoes. Also I used mustard oil, but you can use normal vegetable oil as an alternative.

I cut mango in about two inches long, I mean slightly a bigger cubes than usual, so they retain some texture to end. I used a lot of garlic too, as I think garlic goes really well with lentils.

Meanwhile, I washed and set lentils to boil with some sliced green chilies, salt, garlic and onion slices.

While lentils are getting cooked, I added mustard oil in a deep pan and let it get warmed. Then I added nigella seeds, a bay leaf, garlic slices and paach phoron. After 30 seconds, I added sliced onion and let them get browned.

Then I added sliced green mangoes, turmeric powder, cumin powder and some salt and stirred to coat them well with all other spices. Now, remember to stir often because we are first roasting the mangoes before boiling them.

To get lentil cooked properly, I have used a very traditional wooden lentil masher aka ‘Daal Ghutni’. It is bit tough to use if you don’t have practice! Otherwise you can always use a normal whisker. I added more water to boil them properly.

When lentils are cooked and have even consistency, I transferred them with mango. By this time, mangoes should be half cooked and lentils should be totally boiled. Add more water if you think the consistency is too thick.

I simmered them until my desired consistency. This particular dish needs no ‘phoron’ (tempering) as we’ve already fried onion and garlic at the beginning.

This tart, light yet satisfying mango lentil soup is really refreshing in hot summer days! This amazing recipe is shared to me by my sweet nephew Nova (who stole my mango achar by the way!). So thank you Nova for the recipe but not thank you for stealing my aamer achar 😡

Recipe: Aam Daal Prepping time: 10min, Cooking time: 20 min

Ingredients: 1 Big Green Mango (approx 250 g) 1 Cup red lentils Spices: 1/2 tsp Nigella Seeds 1 tsp Paach Phoron 1 Bay leaf 1/4tsp Turmeric powder 1/4tsp Cumin powder 3/4 pieces of dry red chili 3/4 pieces of green chili 1 big onion 4/5 garlic cloves

1. Wash and boil lentils with sliced salt, onion, garlic and green chilies. 2. In a big pan, heat mustard oil and add nigella seeds, paach phoron, bay leaf to temper the oil. Then add sliced onion and garlic. Fry them until golden brown. 3. Add chopped green mangoes, turmeric powder, cumin powder and continue to stir until slightly toasted. 4. When lentil is cooked, transfer them with mango and boil until desired consistency. Adjust salt if needed. Enjoy with white rice or as it is!