For most of my life, I’ve hated dal. Dal, or lentils, is a nutritious staple of north Indian diets meaning as a kid, I was forced to eat it almost every day.
My Nani (grandmother in Hindi) has a full pantry of dals, probably at least 15 different types, each requiring its own soaking and cooking times. As a home-cook, I never had much passion for dal given the complex cooking times. It's also not surprising that few in Western cultures cook dal for one simple reason: if you don’t own a pressure cooker, it's incredibly time consuming to cook regularly.
As a child, instead of eating dal at home, I’d sneak out to eat American fast-food chains. Cajun fries with double burger combo trays sounded a lot better than masoor dal or urad dal. As I’ve started to become more conscious of my own environmental footprint and in easier to digest foods than meat, the irony is not lost on me that I am turning back to dal.
Dal is an incredibly nutritious protein packed element in the modern home cook’s plant based arsenal; however, for many, myself included, the cooked texture is somewhat unappealing. So, its with pleasure that I’ll share a secret to making it more digestible and palatable. Rather than pressure cook the dal for hours on end into a stewy mush, instead, soak and sprout!
Growing up, we’d have this sprouted mung bean salad for breakfast and lunch. It was light, zingy, tasty, and refreshing cold or hot, and as I recall one of the times I enjoyed consuming lentils and beans.
Below is a recipe I wrote down from my grandmother on how to sprout lentils, and I’ve taken it a step further with a recipe I’ve adapted for a sprouted lentil salad I made recently, hope you enjoy!
Recipe: Sprouted Brown Lentil Summer Salad
IF YOU REMEMBER ONLY ONE THING: WASH THE LENTILS OR BEANS AT LEAST 3-4 TIMES BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER THEY SPROUT.
How to sprout lentils:
Wash 250g of brown lentils thoroughly in a large bowl. If you don’t have brown lentils, you can experiment with other whole lentils or beans (they cannot be split).
Fill the bowl with at least 4-5 inches of lukewarm water. Soak for 24 hours.
Strain the lentils, rinse 3-4 times again, and then place them in a wet cheesecloth over a strainer.
Let lentils sprout in a warm, dry area (usually inside my oven) for another 24 hours.
You should start to see white sprouts coming out indicating you’re done. Rinse lentils 3-4 times again.
Recipe:
Heat a stainless steel pan on high heat, add 2-3 glugs of olive oil or whichever oil is now politically correct.
Fry off some garlic for 1 minute, throw in the sprouted lentils.
Toss to coat in the hot oil and sauté on high for 2-3 minutes to warm.
Season generously with salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice, and chopped parsley or coriander.
Finish with a tiny bit of garam masala (optional). Remember garam masala is usually added at the end of cooking and less is more!
Serve hot as a warm summer salad or cold as well.
A more traditional version of this recipe would involve tempering hing (Asafoetida) and mustard or cumin seeds with mung bean sprouts in hot oil, finished with chopped coriander, lemon, tomatoes, and a generous helping of bhujia (crispy fried gram flour sticks)."