Dhansak is made by cooking mutton or goat meat with a mixture of lentils and vegetables.

The technique of extending a relatively expensive ingredient (meat) by combining it with vegetables and/or lentils in the same recipe is widely employed in Persian cooking.

[citation needed] Dhansak is made by cooking mutton cubes with a mixture of various lentils and vegetables.

After prolonged cooking in the traditional recipe (or the use of a pressure cooker), the vegetables are more or less homogenised with the lentils, which are also broken down, so that the result is a thick stew rather than a curry.

The Parsees, who are adherents of Zoroastrianism, came to Western India as religious refugees in the 8th century CE, after the Arab conquest of Persia and the fall of the Sassanid Empire in 651 C. They brought with them the tradition of cooking meat with lentils and/or vegetables.