Talk:Dal

Comment without heading
The article mentions moong dal being used as the main ingredient in rasam.This is incorrect. The use of dal in rasam is optional and when added, it is toor dal and not moong. even i know that!!

Recipe queries
I love daal! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Akupta321 (talk • contribs) 06:29, 18 March 2006
 * Yeah, dal is good! I recommend both Masoor (red split lentil) and Chana.
 * I find that the unskinned split Moong is a little bland. Unskinned split Urad is a little bland, too, but both of those (Moong and Urad) sometimes are soaked and used to make pancake/crepe-like items (in the case of the urad, it is fermented along with ground white rice and used to make the dosas and the idlis--dosas are crepelike, and idlis are steam-cakes).


 * The recipe on the preceding page (entry page) was a bit odd to me. I find that it's great to just make a Tarka out of about a teaspoon of cumin seeds, fried in hot oil with some thin-sliced onions (a small sweet onion will do ya) and a few broken up dried red chilies (put the seasonings in the hot oil and let darken slightly before you add the onions and let them soften and for the water to come out; don't burn--you can reduce heat slightly and brown the onions a little).  You want to have a cooked 3/4 cup to a cup of dal (this is the raw amount--cooked yields about 3 or 4 times that amount, depending on how much water you use!) handy and waiting (and always cook your dal with about 1/4 teaspoon turmeric for authentic Indian flavor).  Throw the hot, still-sizzling Tarka over the dal.  I always leave the dal (with the added Tarka) to simmer a few minutes on low heat to blend the flavors.


 * Another tip: adding salt too soon may toughen a dal, so add it to your pot of dal when it's just about soft enough for your personal taste. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.72.98.104 (talk) 08:45, 30 April 2006
 * 1/2 an inch of ginger?! What does that mean? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.48.50.7 (talk) 16:41, 31 May 2006
 * What they mean by the "1/2 inch of ginger" would be a washed, peeled section of gingerroot.
 * This rhizome normally has sections that look finger-like, so you can just break it off about 1/2 of an inch, wash the portion and then peel it with a knife. After that you have the option of boiling it with the dal (lentils) and picking it out later, or you can mince it finely (like garlic, somewhat) and use it in the tarka or even cook it into your boiling lentils.  Hope this makes sense. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.72.98.105 (talk) 08:23, 11 June 2006


 * To facilitate discussion on this page, I've moved this very old conversation into its own section at the top, tidying layout per WP:TPG. Happydemic (talk) 10:42, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Dalek
In the See Also section there is a link to Dalek. That goes to the Dr. Who related page. When I looked at the disambiguation page, I still didn't see anything related. What's that supposed to point to?

Bill Smith (talk) 02:17, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

Prepared_dal.JPG
Does anybody have a better picture which can make people feel more inclined to have dal as a food, instead of being reminded to visit the toilet?

While taking pictures of food items, the plate/pot should be visible for reference. Often, a slight angular view seems better than a perpendicular top view.

Sub40Hz 14:01, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Heh I changed it—SpaceRocket (talk) 15:09, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Lentil recipes
Is it cooked for a long time in a closed pot with very littre water, very moderately heated to conserve all the juices, like a stew? or is it more like a ragout, cooked for a long time in a spicy sauce with flour?--Sonjaaa 16:43, 15 August 2006 (UTC)



For more lentil recipes and pictures check the following: Paruppu Adai - 4 Lentil Pancake http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com/2006/07/4-lentil-pancake-paruppu-adai.html Lasooni Dal Palak - Garlicky lentils with spinach - http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com/2006/04/lasooni-dal-palak-garlicky-lentils.html Lentil- Rice Pilaf - http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com/2006/06/comfort-khichdi_28.html Kothavarangai Usuli - Cluster beans with steamed lentils - http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com/2006/06/cluster-beans-paruppu-usili.html

watery vs thick
I know that often dal is watery... how about an addition like:


 * Traditionally dal is often dal is often made very watery and used to wet the bread, rice and/or other parts of the meal.

Westerners who make dal often make it thick and treat it as the mainstay of the meal... is this also a common thing among Indians? I've seen it done (a friend, and in a restaurant) but it seems rare. --Chriswaterguy talk 11:41, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 17:44, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Alternative spellings
Dāl is the most correct transliteration of the Devanāgarī दाल, at least academically, so dal is the definitely the correct title for the article, just as Devanagari is the title of the page on Devanāgarī. Alternative transliterations are dahl and daal, both indicating the use of the long 'a': आ / ā rather than अ / a. Dhal is definitely incorrect, however, as it transliterates either धल / dhal or धाल / dhāl. I believe this misspelling is due to the fact that English speakers aren't used to seeing the form vowel-'h'-consonant, while they are somewhat familiar with the form consonant-'h'-vowel in other Sanskrit/Hindi words where aspirated consonants are common.

I've checked several English dictionaries, and all agree that dal is the correct spelling and dahl is a correct variant. None include daal or dhal. Therefore I feel it is appropriate to change the opening of the article from "Dal (also spelled dhal, dahl, or daal)" to "Dal (also spelled dhal)". I will do that after posting this explanation on the talk page. Note that daal and dhal will both still redirect to this article, which is appropriate as they are common enough misspellings to warrant that.

If people really have an issue with taking out the common misspellings, we could do something like "Dal (also spelled dahl, or erroneously as daal or dhal)" or "Dal (also spelled dahl, daal, or erroneously as dhal)", but please consider all that I've mentioned and let's discuss if necessary. GOV (talk) 22:17, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Why is Pappu not one of the links to this page? How can it be made a link to this page? and Can Pappu not be an alternative name/heading to the page?

My parents, who are both Gujarati, pronounce it with a short a, and because the wiki doesn't post the writing in Gujarati, I can't tell if it is right or not108.35.51.122 (talk) 13:54, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

The bag says something else
Dhandaal / danda dahl- 20 Recipies no ingles? (yes it's a bean, not a dish.) 71.221.232.5 (talk) 22:01, 29 September 2013 (UTC)MAJIK

Need more insight into the History of Dal and its Manufacture
When was dal first introduced into the Indian diet? Are there any Hindu/ Jain/ Buddhist scriptural quotations that can attest to its manufacture in ancient times? What was the reason for the manufacture of dal in ancient times? How was dal manufactured back then? How is dal manufactured today? If possible, provide a description of a standard dal manufacturing facility with photographs. Also, photographs of the raw material and the finished product dal would be much appreciated. Remember, an encyclopedia must necessarily provide these details. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wargamer (talk • contribs) 04:31, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Title change
The correct english word is lentils. I believe dal is hindi word for Pappu. i had no clue that Hindi became the standard which we refer to normal food that is eaten worldwide. In India, dal is not the pan-Indian word for lentils and this is an english wiki, not a hindi wiki. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.147.224.225 (talk) 01:11, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

Spelling, again
At the moment the title is Dal, and Dal appears a total of 28 times within the article. The spelling Dhal is used 45 times in the article, and is mentioned as an alternative spelling. Other spellings that are mentioned on disambiguation pages Dahl and Daal are not mentioned once. As far as I'm aware, the article should use one spelling, the title and all in text mentions, infoboxes and subtitles should use the same spelling as each other and the title, it looks silly to use multiple spellings, especially to use one for the title and then another different spelling much more than the one used in the title. If no opposition is brought up, I will soon change all different spellings to the same. I will use Dal only because it is the current title of the article.

Exceptions that are allowed are.


 * Alternative spellings are listed in the article lead for information purposes.
 * Anything that is a direct quotation of another work or something else should use the spelling of the thing it is quoting.
 * Different variations that use different spellings more often despite being the same word are allowed. Eg Whisky is the name of an article, that talks about Scotch whisky and Bourbon whiskey because those are the most common spellings of those terms. The same should apply here with different variations of dal if some variations have an agreed spelling.

 Carl wev   17:57, 21 September 2015 (UTC)


 * in the same way that different spellings of whisky and whiskey are regional/dialectic, the same variance with dal/daal/dhal/dahl may be quite relevant. It is not uncommon to come across weird spellings because English is a f**ked up language 49.183.27.209 (talk) 14:17, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

Another meaning...
Sometimes it's called dhal or dahl (No not the surname meant for Ronald Dahl). 124.106.131.35 (talk)

Masoor /red lentil myth?
Strict Vaishnavas including Hare Krishnas refrain from eating red lentils quoting the "too high in protein" myth. Seriously, they're only 1% or 2% higher than toor dal or green or brown lentils - and far lower than soybeans, lupins, black lentils or mung beans. There really isn't a lot of difference in protein content across the entire range of lentils regardless of colour. The Vedic account/taboo pertains to carrots, garlic, onions and red lentils in regards to an ancient fire sacrifice (lore) and reeks of mythology (with no scientific basis whatsoever). 49.183.27.209 (talk) 12:48, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

The word "pulses" is blue hot-text but it leads to the Wikipedia article on heartbeats.
There is a Wikipedia disambiguation-page for "pulse" or "pulses", and there is a page about pulses that are legumes. I find it bewildering (but not atypical) that you route the click to the article on heartbeats and not the article on legumes. Was this vandalism?2600:8804:8C40:401:1C64:8308:33BC:E2D6 (talk) 06:58, 15 October 2022 (UTC)Christopher L. Simpson

“do not require soaking”
Is this actually an accurate generalisation for all varieties of dal? I know it is not technically required in most cases, but I do usually give dal a brief soak before cooking. Seems like an unusual point to make. عُثمان (talk) 17:05, 20 December 2022 (UTC)