Instructions: India has the worlds largest number of vegetarians. In a meatless diet lentils and pulses play an important role providing all the protein needed for healthy living. Lentils or dals are an integral part of indian cookery so they are widely grown and are consequently very cheap. Every indian eats dal daily and the Hindi term dal roti has come to mean staple everyday food. Dal roti or lentils and bread are made in thousands of different ways in indian homes. This may sound boring but lentils can be transformed into any number of dishes ground into flour for bread roasted and crushed for sweets and added whole to vegetables and meats for flavour and texture.

how they grow
The yellow lentil plant is a deep rooted shrubby perennial which is grown from seed. The small flowers give way to long slim pods which contain seeds. The pods are dried in the sun or mechanically and husked to separate the seeds which are the lentils. In some parts of India yellow lentils are slightly oiled to increase shelf life more so when the lentils are exported and therefore indian shops outside India usually stock the oily variety of yellow lentil.

appearance and taste
These lentils are yellow and sold split into two round halves. The oily variety is sticky and glossy the unoily one is matte. They are very easy to digest and have a pleasant subtle nutty flavour

buying and storing
In India the unoily lentil is preferred so if you do buy oily yellow lentils soak them in hot water for a while and throw away the resulting cloudy white liquid. Then wash the lentils several times to get rid of most of the oil. Yellow lentils store well for up to 6 months in clean dry containers. Though lentils are processed before packing it is a good idea to spread them on a plate and extract any small stones bits of earth or stalks before use.

culinary uses
Easy to cook their cooking time is further reduced if the lentils are soaked for half an hour. Always add salt to the dal at the very last minute or the lentils will stay hard. Yellow lentils are mostly eaten whole but they can also be pureed after soaking to make a pancake batter.

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