Instructions: Just as Americans say bread and butter to denote simple food, in India the equivalent term is dal-roti. Roti is the Hindi term for bread; dal refers to lentils, beans and peas.

Most Indians are vegetarians - for religious reasons, for economic reasons and, lately, for health reasons, too. In the Indian vegetarian diet, high-fiber, low-fat dals are the primary source of protein.

Hundreds of varieties of dals are eaten throughout India. Served with bread or rice (or both), a salad and a vegetable, dals make a complete and nutritionally balanced meal.

Dal is an integral part of everyday cooking throughout India. Regional preferences are strong, with each region favoring certain dals, spices and cooking methods.

In the north, chickpeas (garbanzo beans) are the stars of a tasty entree called chole, which is relished with the puffy deep-fried breads bhatura and puri. In the west, the sweet-and-sour yellow split pea soup aamti is enjoyed every day with bread and rice. In the east, dal is roasted before cooking.

In the south, yellow split peas are cooked with vegetables to make a stew called sambhar, which is eaten with rice. Urad dal, a black-skinned lentil with a creamy white interior, is combined with rice to create breakfast foods like idli, a steamed dumpling, dosa, a crisp crepe, and uttapam, a pancake. Garbanzo flour is used extensively in the region to make fritters, snacks and desserts.

Dal doesnt get to be delicious on its own. Eaten plain, beans, lentils and peas are bland and tasteless. This is where the Indian spice blends called masalas come in. Besides imparting flavor, the spices also have medicinal value, according to the ancient Indian system of medicine called ayurveda. Spices such as ginger and cumin are believed to reduce the flatulence that is associated with beans. (My mother used to add cumin seeds to the water in which she soaked beans.)

One technique that brings the dal alive is the addition of spice-infused oil, or tarka, to the cooked dal. A teaspoon of oil is heated in a small skillet, and spices such as cumin seeds, mustard seeds, ginger and garlic are added. My favorite combination is cumin seeds and garlic.

Dried beans are notorious for their lengthy cooking times; this alone scares away many home cooks. Presoaking beans cuts the cooking time considerably, but does require some planning. Typically I soak beans overnight in large quantities, then freeze the soaked beans in small bags. This way, instead of reaching for a can of beans, I can thaw and cook a bag of frozen beans.

Another trick for cooking dals quickly is to use a pressure cooker. In India, having a pressure cooker in the kitchen is the equivalent of having an oven in the Western kitchen. But when I am really pressed for time, I use canned beans and ignore the high sodium content.

Since coming to the United States 15 years ago, I have added Western touches to my dal meals. Yes, dals are delicious with rice or Indian bread. But I also like to enjoy hearty dal soup with garlic bread or lentil vegetable stew with sourdough bread. Or I make a dal dish into a complete meal by adding ravioli or linguine to it.

Here is just a sampling of the many ways Indians enjoy dals, with recipes I have adapted to ingredients found in local supermarkets and health food stores.

Mung beans are known for being easy to cook and easy to digest, and those qualities have made them a favorite among beans. In kitchidi, they are paired with rice in a smooth porridge. The Indian equivalent to chicken soup, it is eaten when you are under the weather or simply too tired to cook. Kitchidi is also one of the first solid foods served to infants.

Dal doesnt always have to be cooked. For kosimbri moong salad, the moong dal is soaked for several hours.

Poppadoms are parchment-thin disks, generally made of split legumes such as urad dal or moong dal. In the south, they are called poppadoms; in the north, papar. There are different ways to enjoy poppadoms. Some people eat them with chutney, while others serve them as an appetizer with drinks. Some crush a whole poppadom and eat it with yogurt-rice, the blend of unflavored yogurt and plain rice without which no South Indian meal is complete. My English friend Julie Jenkins showed me an interesting way to serve poppadoms: with tea. Its a healthy alternative to biscuits or cookies, she said.

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