India has some of the highest levels of vegetarianism in the world, so it’s no surprise that protein-rich pulses like lentils form an important part of our diet. Dal is a mealtime staple and the backbone of our meals – nutritious, easily available, cheap and sublime with a spoonful of ghee. If I had to describe it to someone uninitiated, I would probably describe it as curried or stewed lentils. I would also ask which rock they’d been living under.
In the West, I have watched dal go mainstream from trendy plant-based comfort and winter warmer fare to the food to cook in a pandemic and enjoy when the world is likely to end. The enduring appeal of dal transcends every season and needs no reason. Dal, daal, or dhal, is always made of lentils making the phrase “lentil dal” redundant. The only Dahl I know is a Roald, but not personally I hasten to add.
All lentils aren’t made equal and there are some important points to note before I take you through the most common varieties used to make dal and share a new recipe for Moong Dal with Carom, Fenugreek, Garlic and Curry Leaves (pictured):
Before you start cooking
Lentils for dal aren’t interchangeable. You can’t substitute one lentil for another willy nilly in a dal unless the recipe blesses it. Lentils have different cooking times, density of texture and levels of nuttiness/sweetness.
Lentils are sold with/without husk. The husk is the skin or outer tough coating of the lentils. Again, husk and huskless varieties of the same lentils are not interchangeable and have different uses.
You need to wash them well first. Dry lentils have dust and debris in them that needs to be washed off. The most eco-friendly way of doing this is to place them in a bowl or pan, fill with cold water and run your fingers through them to loosen the dust until the water turns milky. Rinse and repeat until the lentils sparkle through clear water. This is all very therapeutic as you can imagine.
They sometimes need soaking. As a general rule, the longer the cooking time of a lentil variety, the more the need to soak. Soaking lentils helps with digesting them and reduces cooking time too. I don’t bother soaking red (masoor) or yellow (skinless moong) lentils but Chana and Toor need a good old dunking.
When you’re cooking
Dal is often cooked with digestive aids. Unpleasant but necessary intel: ingredients like asafoetida and ginger are often used when cooking dal to help the gut along.
Lentils will release foam and debris when they first start bubbling. The amount will depend on how well they were washed. All you need to do is skim and discard this with a wooden spoon. If a recipe calls for lentils to be bubbled with turmeric and oil, add these after the lentils are bubbling clear or you’ll simply remove them along with the foam.
Sodium Bicarbonate speeds things up. For lentils that have been sitting around or take longer to cook, you can add a pinch or two of baking soda after addition of turmeric and oil and cook the lot covered, stirring from time to time. The water will turn cloudy, but it makes no difference to the result. You can always squish the lentils with a potato masher at the end of cooking time, if they need a helping hand.
Keep hot water handy. A sure-fire way of slowing things down is to add cold water to bubbling lentils. Fill and boil a kettle and add hot water as requested by the recipe. Don’t add any other ingredients to the lentils until they are almost cooked as this will inevitably slow things down (unless you’re making my mother’s one pot dal, which is a tadka-free rarity that does its own thing).
Serving up dal
It is almost always finished with a tadka. Tadka (pronounced Tur-ka, with a roll on the r) is a spice tempering that also goes by the name of vaghar, phoron, and more depending on where you are in India. There are two types of tadka, the kind where spices are sizzled in hot oil and then poured over the bubbling lentils, or where you make a more substantial masala paste and pour in the boiled lentils. Exceptions include Sada Varan, Marathi plain dal with turmeric, ghee and lemon (slurp), and my mother’s one.
Dal is not soup. It is meant to be served with a carb. Steaming freshly cooked Basmati is a hot favourite, but flatbreads are great for dipping and scooping too.
Consistency is key. Depending on the lentils you use, they are usually shapeless, squidgy and fluid when served. The fluidity of dal depends on what you’re serving it with. They tend to be thinner and more soup-like if they are being served with rice and thicker if they are to go with rotis, parathas and puris. But flow they should. In fact, dry dal is a specific recipe and is called sukhi or sookhi dal for precisely that reason.
Dal thickens as it sits around. Some lentils like Chana and Toor more so than others. So if you return to your pot of dal to discover it has lost its flow, add a little hot water and stir to revive it to the consistency of your choice.
Other important points to note
When you’re making dal, the bubbling of lentils until smooth and soft is what takes the time and effort. I would recommend making extra and freezing in portions for days when you simply want to defrost and complete with a tadka for a quick fix meal.
Note: There is no such thing as a Carrot Dal, this is carrot lentils. It is also utterly pointless to say Spiced Dal or Curried Dal, as Dal is curried lentils and always spiced, even if it is just with turmeric.
Image courtesy Izzy Croker for Masala: Indian Cooking for Modern Living, Behind the scenes
Knowing your lentils for dal making
Now on to lentil varieties. I am partial to dried lentils for dal making, although I do reach for tinned cooked varieties if time doesn’t allow and for creative diaspora versions of the dal we enjoyed at home. Here are the lentils most used in Indian cooking and what you need to know about them:
BENGAL GRAM (SPLIT) or CHANA DAL
The skinless split version of brown chickpeas or whole Bengal gram, chana dal is an earthy, nutty and comforting yellow lentil, used for the thick dal favoured in Orissa, West Bengal and Punjab. They take a while to cook and need at least two hours of soaking, plus a little baking soda to move things along.
BLACK GRAM (WHOLE) or URID / URAD
Rich and nutty, black gram or whole urid lentils make lavish dals with depth such as restaurant favourite Dal Makhani. They do need soaking overnight before cooking.
BLACK GRAM (SKINLESS) WHITE URID (URAD)
Black gram that has been split is white in colour, with no dark skin at all. With their powdery light texture, these lentils also mimic flour and act as a fermentation aid in savoury spongy dishes like idli and dosa.
GREEN MOONG BEANS MOONG (HARI MUNG)
Green moong beans are just yellow moong beans with the husk on, each sporting a little dent in its belly with a white pockmark on it. They need at least 3–4 hours of soaking and can double in size. These can be cooked the same way as whole black gram, albeit reaching a less dense conclusion.
YELLOW LENTILS MOONG (MUNG)
Yellow lentils are small with a warm nutty flavour that intensifies when dry-roasted. Essentially, green moong without their husks. They cook quickly and don’t need to be soaked. It can be used interchangeably with red split lentils below.
RED SPLIT LENTILS MASOOR DAL
These are the most commonly available lentils. Red split lentils cook quickly and turn into super-smooth dal with a mild flavour that’s perfect for spiky spice tempering. You’ll see them often in packets of ‘soup mix’ lentils. They don’t need soaking.
SPLIT PIGEON PEAS or TOOR/ARHAR/TUVAR
Toor or arhar dal is used extensively in Gujarati and south Indian cooking. It has a nutty flavour and retains its shape well, although it does take long to cook. It is sold as an oily version to extend its shelf life too. Buy the ‘unoily’ or ‘dry’ version and soak for at least two hours before using. It can be used interchangeably with split Bengal Gram or Chana Dal.
The most commonly available tinned lentils are green and brown, of course. I usually use these in recipes that call for nutty lentils that take longer to cook. They don’t break down quite as easily as raw, soaked and bubbled lentils but for quick fixes we can overlook this.
Dal with Carom, Fenugreek, Garlic and Curry Leaves recipe
This Moong Dal with sharp carom seeds, fenugreek, garlic and curry leaves is coming to you via one of my followers on Instagram. Parul tried it in a guest house in Shirdi, Maharashtra, and was so captivated she shared a loose method with me by DM. And it didn’t disappoint.
Recipe inspiration really can strike from anywhere and I am grateful to home cooks and food lovers who share their discoveries, tricks, quirks and ideas with me. I hope you enjoy it and wish you a dal-icious new year.
1 cup yellow moong lentils, washed
2 cups fresh water
1 tsp turmeric
1 large tomato, chopped into small pieces
Salt to taste
2 tbsp ghee
1 tsp carom seeds
10-15 curry leaves
2 whole dry red chillies
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
Half tsp cumin powder
Half tsp Kasuri methi/dry fenugreek
Bubble the lentils with the water on medium high heat, until foam rises to the surface. Skim to clear and add the turmeric. The lentils will take 20 minutes to become soupy in texture. Do please add hot water when they appear too parched to cook.
Mix the chopped tomatoes in for the last five minutes. Add salt to taste, turn off the heat and leave to sit, while you make the tadka.
In a small pan, bring the ghee to medium high heat and splutter the carom seeds, curry leaves and whole dry red chillies in quick succession following with the cumin powder. Add the garlic and fry until golden, then pour the tadka over the lentils. Swirling a tablespoon of the dal in the pan before mixing back into the main dish will make sure you don’t leave any tadka behind - my nan’s trick. Finish your dal by crushing the fenugreek in your palms and sprinkling over.
If you use a pressure cooker or Instant Pot, you can reverse the order of the recipe making the tadka first and then bubbling the lentils in it. It will still impress.
