Dal

Dal or pappu or paripu is a dried pulse (lentil, pea or various types of bean) which has been split. The outer hull is usually stripped off; dal that has not been hulled is described as chilka (skin), e.g. chilka urad dal, mung dal chilka. The word dal is also used to name the thick stew prepared from these pulses, an important part of Indian, Nepali, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, West Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine. It is regularly eaten with rice in southern India, and with both rice and roti (wheatbased flat bread) throughout northern India and Pakistan as well as Bangladesh, East India, and Nepal where Dal Baht (literally: dal and rice) is the staple food for much of the population. Dal is a ready source of proteins for a balanced diet containing little or no meat. Sri Lankan cooking of dal resembles that of southern Indian dishes.