Comments on: Doin’ The Dal Thang

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:23:37 +0000

I’m with you. Dahl is fabulous. I particularly like toor dahl with palak paneer and naan. My favourite is the darker urad dahl but my husband, who usually makes the dahl, prefers toor dahl. I gather that’s generally what kind of dahl he ate when he lived in Benares.

(Barbara, I’m so happy to be able to see your blog again! I’ve been getting “cannot display” messages for ages.)

By: sunny12

sunny12 — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:25:57 +0000

have been reading your blog for a while, and am amazed at your knowledge of indian food, and glad to see that you understand the diversity beyond paneer and butter chicken. I actually am not a fan of daal (which I always think of as lentils) probably because I did have it every day growing up. However I have always beans, and do try to make them once or twice a week. Ironically, my boyfriend, who is not Indian, loves daal, and loves making it!

By: renu

renu — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:07:00 +0000

hi barbara,
that was a lovely post about one of india’s most sacred riches ! all over india, from north to south, some kind of dals appear as part of the staple diet, either with roti or with rice. be it the north india’s roti-dal, or tamil nadu’s satam (rice) and sambar, or malayali’s, again, choru-sambar or choru-molakushyam, dal forms part of the basics.

one problem i heard about masoor dal is that it is more prone to adulteration with a certain kind of seeds which can be very toxic. have heard an incident when many people were left dead or paralysed due to the poisoning from adulterated masoor dal. haven’t verified this story, but ever since, was a little bit wary of the variety. however, it is not as popular in kerala as toor dal or mung dal.

By: Moderndayhermit

Moderndayhermit — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:18:48 +0000

I love dhal/beans and try to eat them for at least two meals a day. Delicious, filling, low-fat and so incredibly healthy-how can you go wrong?

I usually take a protein like an egg for breakfast and I’ve found that adding a dhal to the pan and cracking an egg over the dhal and cooking it up is DELICIOUS.

My husband’s family was very poor while he was growing up yet they still never ate beans. To this day he won’t touch anything other than a Mexican-style refry and I think it’s a shame!

A lovely post!

By: Diane

Diane — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:48:01 +0000

Lexica: I think dal preference is highly regional. In the north they tend to prefer rajma and chole. Toor dal is the workhorse of the south. Masoor dal seems, from what I can tell, to be preferred in the east and the north. And moong dal seems to be eaten everywhere.

I made a great masoor dal last night, Benagli style – lightly spiced with onions, kalongi, bay leaves, chilis and finished with lemon and cilantro. It was heavenly. I must admit to cross-cultural confusion in that I ate it with Keralan red rice from the south of India. But my stomach didn’t care!