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Alternative names | Daal, dail, dahl, pappu, ooti |
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Region or state | Indian subcontinent |
Main ingredients | Lentils, peas or beans |
In Indian cuisine, dal (also spelled daal or dhal in English; [1] pronunciation: [d̪aːl], Hindi: दाल, Urdu: دال), paruppu ( Tamil: பருப்பு), or pappu ( Telugu: పప్పు) are dried, split pulses (e.g., lentils, peas, and beans) that do not require soaking before cooking. India is the largest producer of pulses in the world. [2] [3] The term is also used for various soups prepared from these pulses. These pulses are among the most important staple foods in South Asian countries, and form an important part of the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. [4]
The most common way of preparing dal is in the form of a soup to which onions, tomatoes and various spices may be added. The outer hull may or may not be stripped off. Almost all types of dal come in three forms: (1) unhulled or sabut (meaning whole in Hindi), e.g., sabut urad dal or mung sabut; (2) split with hull left on the split halves is described as chilka (which means shell in Hindi), e.g. chilka urad dal, mung dal chilka; (3) split and hulled or dhuli (meaning washed), e.g., urad dhuli or mung dhuli in Hindi. [5] [6]
Dal is frequently eaten with flatbreads such as rotis or chapatis, or with rice. The latter combination is called dal bhat in Nepali, Gujarati and various other Indian languages. In addition, certain types of dal are fried and salted and eaten as a dry snack, and a variety of savory snacks are made by frying a paste made from soaked and ground dals in different combinations, to which other ingredients such as spices and nuts (commonly cashews) may be added.
The word dāl (dal) derives from the Sanskrit verbal root dal- "to split", [7] [8] which is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *delh₁- “to split, divide”. [9] [10] [11]
Dal preparations are eaten with rice, chapati and naan on the Indian subcontinent. The manner in which it is cooked and presented varies by region. In South India, dal is often called "paruppu". It is primarily used to make a dish called sambar. It is also used to make paruppu that is mixed with charu and rice. Ground chana dal is used to make a paste called besan, which is used in the preparation of many favourites
Cooked (boiled) dal contains 9% protein, 70% water, 20% carbohydrates (including 8% fiber), and 1% fat. [12] It also supplies a rich content (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of the B vitamin, folate (45% DV) and manganese (25% DV), with moderate amounts of thiamine (11% DV) and several dietary minerals, such as iron (19% DV) and phosphorus (18% DV). [12]
Food | Carbs (non-Fiber) | Fiber | Protein | Fat |
---|---|---|---|---|
Wheat | 100 | 20.6 | 21.3 | 2.5 |
Rice | 100 | 1.6 | 9 | 0.8 |
Soybean | 100 | 44.2 | 174 | 95 |
Pigeon Pea | 100 | 31 | 45.4 | 3 |
Milk | 100 | 0 | 61 | 61.8 |
Guava | 100 | 60 | 28.6 | 11.2 |
Carrot | 100 | 41.1 | 14.7 | 3.6 |
Spinach | 100 | 157 | 207 | 28 |
Potato | 100 | 14.4 | 13 | 0.6 |
Sweet Potato | 100 | 17.7 | 9.4 | 0.5 |
Eggplant | 100 | 148 | 43.4 | 8.6 |
Apple | 100 | 21 | 2.2 | 1.4 |
Orange | 100 | 25.6 | 1.0 | 1.2 |
Note: Carbohydrates do not include fiber. Source: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Item | Water | Protein |
---|---|---|
Cooked rice [13] | 68.4 | 2.7 |
Cooked dal [14] | 68.5 | 11.9 |
Roti [15] | 33.5 | 11.5 |
Cooked soybean [16] | 62.5 | 16.6 |
Boiled egg [17] | 74.6 | 12.6 |
Cooked chicken [18] | 64.3 | 25.3 |
Vitamins | Minerals | |||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Food | Protein | A | B1 | B2 | B3 | B5 | B6 | B9 | B12 | Ch. | C | D | E | K | Ca | Fe | Mg | P | K | Na | Zn | Cu | Mn | Se |
Cooking Reduction % | 10 | 30 | 20 | 25 | 25 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 10 | 20 | 5 | 10 | 25 | |||||||
Rice | 14 | 0 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 20 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 49 | 22 |
Wheat | 27 | 0 | 28 | 7 | 34 | 19 | 21 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 36 | 51 | 12 | 0 | 28 | 28 | 151 | 128 |
Soybean | 73 | 0 | 58 | 51 | 8 | 8 | 19 | 94 | 0 | 24 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 59 | 28 | 87 | 70 | 70 | 51 | 0 | 33 | 83 | 126 | 25 |
Toor Dal | 43 | 1 | 43 | 11 | 15 | 13 | 13 | 114 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 29 | 46 | 37 | 40 | 1 | 18 | 53 | 90 | 12 |
Urad Dal | 45 | 0 | 24 | 21 | 10 | 0 | 22 | 54 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 58 | 75 | 54 | 21 | 3 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Mung Dal | 43 | 0 | 54 | 19 | 15 | 38 | 29 | 156 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 13 | 52 | 53 | 52 | 27 | 0 | 28 | 0 | 49 | 0 |
Chana Dal [19] | 25 | 1 | 32 | 12 | 8 | 16 | 27 | 139 | 0 | 17 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 35 | 29 | 37 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 42 | 110 | 12 |
Note: All nutrient values including protein are in %DV per 100 grams of the food item. Significant values are highlighted in light gray color and bold letters. [12] [20] Cooking reduction = % Maximum typical reduction in nutrients due to boiling without draining for ovo-lacto-vegetables group. [21] [22]
Although dal generally refers to split pulses, whole pulses can be referred to as sabut dhal and split pulses as dhuli dhal. [24][ better source needed] The hulling of a pulse is intended to improve digestibility and palatability. It also affects the nutrition provided by the dish, significantly increasing protein and reducing dietary fibre content. [25] Pulses with their outer hulls intact are also quite popular in the Indian subcontinent as the main cuisine. Over 50 different varieties of pulses are known in the Indian subcontinent.[ citation needed]
Most dal recipes are quite simple to prepare. The standard preparation begins with boiling a variety of dal (or a mix) in water with some turmeric, salt to taste, and then adding a fried garnish at the end of the cooking process. In some recipes, tomatoes, kokum, unripe mango, jaggery, or other ingredients are added while cooking the dal, often to impart a sweet-sour flavour.
The fried garnish for dal goes by many names, including chaunk, tadka/tarka, bagar, fodni, and phoran. The ingredients in the chaunk for each variety of dal vary by region and individual tastes. The raw spices (more commonly cumin seeds, mustard seeds, asafoetida, and sometimes fenugreek seeds and dried red chili pepper) are first fried for a few seconds in the hot oil on medium/low heat. This is generally followed by ginger, garlic, and onion, which are generally fried for 10 minutes. After the onion turns golden brown, ground spices ( turmeric, coriander, red chili powder, garam masala, etc.) are added. The chaunk is then poured over the cooked dal.