The Dal Cookbook by Krishna Dutta (2-Sep-2013) Hardcover

by Krishna Dutta

Excellent Book

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference

Hardcover

First published September 2, 2013

Reviews

[7jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book full of dal recipes. The dal are dishes - mainly vegetarian but there are a few non-vegetarian recipes included here - including protein-rich lentils, peas and/or beans. There's over 60 types of dal out there, this book mentions 10 (including white chickpeas and red kidney beans. Included is also a 'how to cook' them. :)

The ones that I found most tempting were: Punjabi Black Dal, Punjabi Nimbu Dal, Matar Peas And Paneer, Sambar, Lentil Kutu With Green Beans, Shahjahani Dal From Hyderabad, Moong Dal With Cauliflower, Warm Sprouting Moong Bean Dal.
There's also a recipe for the original 'kedgeree' (vegetarian), Bengali Khichuri. Looks very delicious in the accopanying photo :9

There is a bunch of color photos, but not for every dish. The dals are organised regionally (north-south-east-west), and there is some accompanying foods (like breads, raita and chutneys) in the end. A very well organised book with recipes from easy to quite challenging, it really makes you inspired to make some. Well worth owning for anyone interested.

[Justin Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do actually refer to this book quite regularly as there are some lovely recipes in there for anyone is wanting to expand their dal repertoire, as is the reason I purchased this book, but the majority of recipes don’t have images. Add to that the fact that none of the recipes detail how many people it’s meant to serve, I’d say it’s pretty sloppy.
I would like to know the meal I’m cooking is at least supposed to look and I do want some idea of how many portions I’m getting.
Pretty basic omissions for a cookbook I reckon

[Beth E · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book. I love that it identifies the regions of India that each recipe comes from.
I do not like that it does not have pictures of every recipe. Okay, dal is not always the most photogenic food, but as I am learning about the cuisine, it is helpful to me to know what each recipe should look like.