Dal and lentils: types, soaking, cooking and tadka explained

TRS Toor Dal shows what the word means: dal is a dried legume that has been split in two and usually hulled, and is also the name of the dish you cook with it. Lentils, peas and beans can all be dal, and a dish made with whole legumes is also often called dal, such as dal makhani made with whole urad.

TRS Chana Dal, toor, moong, urad and masoor are the five types of dal you will come across most often, and chickpeas and kidney beans are also found in every Indian pantry. If chilka is written on the bag, the skin is still on and the dal will have more bite.

Red lentils and yellow moong dal are the quickest to prepare and thus your weekday dal, while toor and chana dal take longer and chickpeas, rajma and whole urad are more for the weekend.

Split dal does not need to soak for long, but whole pulses do. First rinse each dal in a sieve under cold water until the water remains clear. You can then put red lentils on immediately. Let toor and moong dal soak in fresh water for twenty minutes to half an hour in our recipes, and chana dal can soak a little longer. Soak chickpeas, kidney beans and whole urad for at least eight hours or overnight in plenty of cold water, as they swell considerably. Then drain the soaking water and cook them in fresh water.

Turmeric and salt are added directly to the cooking water in our recipes, and dal in a regular pot mainly takes time. Allow about five times as much water as dal, bring it to a boil and skim off the foam. Then let the dal simmer gently with the lid partially on the pot until the lentils have completely broken down, and briefly beat it with a cloth at the end. If it becomes too thick, add a splash of hot water.

TRS Cumin Seeds in hot ghee is the start of almost every tadka, the moment when a bowl of dal gets its aroma. A tadka, also known as tarka or chhaunk, is oil in which you briefly sizzle spices until they release their aroma, and then pour it over the dal all at once.

TRS Gram Flour is besan, finely ground chickpea flour made from chana dal. With besan you make the batter for pakora, vegetables in a crispy coating, and for onion bhaji, loose pieces of onion with cumin and ajwain. That is where salt does most of the work: the salted onion releases moisture, so you need almost no water and the batter remains thick enough to stick to the onion. Furthermore, you bind kadhi with it, a yogurt curry, and fry savory pancakes from it, cheela.

TRS Yellow Split Peas are the basis of Surinamese dahl, and that is immediately the difference with the dal from India. The Hindustani families who came from India to Suriname brought their cuisine with them, and there it grew into its own branch. Dahl is a smooth, fairly thin soup of yellow split peas, which you eat with rice or next to roti with chicken. Yet you recognize the tadka: here too a splash of hot oil with cumin seeds, onion and garlic is poured over at the end. And the phulauri and bara of split peas and urdi are cousins of the pakora from India.

Unsure which dal to get in the house first? Then start with a bag of toor dal for dal tadka and a bag of red lentils for the evenings when it needs to be quick, with cumin seeds, turmeric and a jar of ghee next to it, and take a bag of chickpeas with you for the weekend.

With these five recipes you cook the classics from this guide. For the days without time to soak there is Gits Rajma Masala, ready-made rajma that you only need to heat up, and put a jar of Mother's Recipe Mixed Pickle next to it. Gits and Mother's Recipe are Indian brands that are simply on the supermarket shelf in India. More jars and packets you find in Indian curries from jar and packet.