The one dish you could find in my home growing up at all times was a dish made with daal or lentils. It was a weekly staple that came in a variety of forms from sweet to savory, soup form to a mush or mixed with rice or meat to the base of a batter for some fried deliciousness. The list of dishes are endless! As are the interpretations of the word daal.
Daal translates to lentils, but also refers to the name of the dish. Most of the time if someone says we are having Daal it usually means a lentil style soup. And because of the variety of daals available you never know what you are going to get. There is no one recipe for Daal. The taste, consistency, spice factor differs from home to home, village to village, town to town, region to region. And don't even get me started on all the different type of daals available. The one thing that is consistent with daal is that you get alot of bang for your buck. Not only can you create a variety of dishes from one bag of daal -the perfect poor mans food but daal is a super-food rich in proteins, vitamins, minerals, cholesterol lowering fibers, amino acids, and iron. Mix daal with a grain and you get complete protein.
This Sunday, I will be making the version that is simply referred to as Daal in my home. It's a combination of Mung, Masur and Chana daals, which have been cooked in a big pot of water to create a soup like consistency. After infusing it with spices and topping it off with some lemon and cilantro it will be served with a squash dish, basmati rice and sweet sev (vermicelli) for a sweet and savory experience. All six tastes sweet, sour, salty, astringent, pungent and bitter will be present in the meal, so not to leave you with any cravings afterwards at least according to Ayurveda Look forward to testing it with you all!
Below are a list of 7 (don't even get me started) daals that keep my kitchen cabinet full and colorful. If you are just beginning to experiment with daal, Mung is quite versatile as it's a great soup, saute, sprout, 1 of the 2 ingredients in kitchri, its easy to find and cooks quickly.
Mung daal
whole split with no peel split with peel
Masur daal
whole split with no peel
Chana daal
Tuwar daal
split and peeled
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