The Dal Cookbook

by Krishna Dutta

2015 Gourmand Awards WINNER BEST INDIAN CUISINE


Dal is to India what pasta is to Italy. Cheap to produce, highly nutritional, suitable for long storage and capable of being cooked in a basic pot on an open fire, dal has been providing nourishment to millions of Indians for millennia. It truly is a pan-Indian dish consumed by rich and poor alike. It is high protein and has practically no sugar – in fact it is known as ‘poor man’s meat’ in India – hence doctors now include this as an essential item in a diet for diabetics. Dal is a genuinely impressive dish of infinite variety – there are at least 50 recipes for this humble food. There are multiple ways of cooking it, wide-ranging seasonings are used and there are diverse supplements to serve with it. Over the centuries Indian cooks became innovative and with locally available ingredients they dished out dal to satisfy a regional palate. In the process they also invented new dishes using dal lentils such as kedgeree (khichari – a risotto made with lentil), dosas (pancakes mixed with lentil flower), vadas (lentil cakes), dhokla (baked lentil cakes), papadam (dried lentil snack) and pakoras (fritters dipped in lentil batter).

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference

224 pages, 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.