The Dal Cookbook (Krishna Dutta)

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).