Dal Basics

Dal, or lentils, is a staple food in South Asia. Slow cooked with various spices such as cumin, turmeric, garlic and hot chilies, the thick saucy result is served with rice or fresh roti (bread). Across India and Pakistan, people love to dig into the hearty dish with their bare hands, mixing it together with rice and scooping it up with their fingers. “It tastes better this way” is a common refrain. Think of it as the quintessential Indian comfort food.

Slow cooking dal is essential. One way to mimic the taste achieved from traditional slow-cooking over coal is to make dal in a slow cooker. You could, in theory, “cheat” and reduce the cooking time by using a pressure cooker, but this changes the flavour of the dal (not for the better).

And then there’s semantics. Technically, in Urdu, the word “dal” refers to the lentil without the skin. When the word “sabith” is used along with the name of the specific type of lentil, as in “sabith moong” (whole mung bean) or “sabith masoor” (whole red lentil), it refers to the lentil with the skin still intact. Dal (lentils without the skin) is easily found in most grocery stores nowadays.

Every dal is prepared differently. A lot of that has to do with how easily we digest various lentils. Urad dal, aka black gram with its black skin and white core, has different characteristics than other dals and can not necessarily be easily substituted for red masoor dal. Urad is heavier and more difficult to digest than masoor. It is also harder and takes longer to cook than most other lentils. As such, a very specific spice combination, comprising fresh ginger, whole peppercorn and mint, is used to help digestion. When used to make dosa and idli, two popular South Indian dishes, this hard pulse is usually soaked overnight before cooking. In other applications, when short on time, you can get by soaking urad dal in hot water for a few hours.