Pulses / Daal / Lentils
Masoor daal / Red lentils / Malka Masoor
Masoor is probably the most commonly used daal (lentil) in India. It is available whole and split and without skin.
- Whole - Malka Masoor
- Split - Dhuli Massor Daal
It does not need soaking prior to cooking as it is a "soft" daal and cooks quickly.
Saabut masoor daal / Khadi masoor daal
Saabutmasoor, means whole and the brownish skin is left on in this type of masoor daal.
It can be used in all the same dishes as masoor daal (split and skin removed). Saabut masoor takes slightly longer to cook than masoor daal.
Saabut moong daal
- soak for 5 hours
Saabut moong daal, is whole moong or moong with the green skin left on. It cooks faster if soaked in advance as it is a "harder" daal. Saabut moong tastes great when sprouted and is a lovely, healthful addition to salads.
Mix a handful of sprouted Saabut moong daal in a bowl of yogurt, season with salt and somechaat masala(available at most Indian grocery stores) and you'll have a delicious and filling snack.
Hari split moong daal / green split moong daal / moong daal chilka
Saabut vs Hari moong daal
Sabut Moong Dal
- Sabut moong dal refers to whole green moong beans with their skin intact.
- It is rich in fiber, protein, and various nutrients including vitamins and minerals.
- Sabut moong dal takes longer to cook compared to split lentils because of its whole form.
- It has a slightly nutty flavor and retains its shape well after cooking, making it suitable for salads, soups, stews, and Indian dishes like khichdi and dal makhani.
Hari Moong Dal
- Hari moong dal, on the other hand, refers to split green moong beans without the skin.
- It cooks faster compared to sabut moong dal due to its split form.
- Hari moong dal is also rich in protein, fiber, and various nutrients.
- It has a milder flavor compared to sabut moong dal and tends to disintegrate more when cooked, making it suitable for dishes like dals, curries, and soups.
Moong daal
Moong daal, has had its olive green skin removed and is split. It is a golden yellow color and turns slightly lighter when cooked.
Moong does not need soaking prior to being cooked as it is a "soft" daal.
Green vs Yellow Moong daal
- Nutrition - Green moong dal is more nutritious than yellow moong dal because the skin of the green moong dal contains nutrients.
- Preparation - Green moong dal needs to be soaked for at least five hours before cooking. Yellow moong dal can be eaten raw or soaked.
- Uses - Green moong dal is used to make sprouts, dal khichdi, dosa, dhoklas, and curries. Yellow moong dal can be used to make dal khichdi, pakodas, curries, chilas, and toast.
- Versatility - Yellow moong dal has a milder flavor and is more versatile than green moong dal. It can be used in a wider range of dishes, including sweet dishes and desserts.
Toor/Tuvar or Arhar daal or pigeon peas
Toor/tuvar or arhar daal, is most commonly sold and cooked in its split, skinless form. With its skin on, it is a greenish-brown color and without its skin, yellow.
Toor daal looks a lot like chana daal but has smaller, more yellow-colored grains. It is especially popular in the west and south India. It cooks quickly and does not require soaking in advance.
Sabut urad
Split urad with skin
Urad daal, can be bought whole with its skin on, split with its skin on or split with its skin removed.
This black lentil has a creamy white interior when split. Whole and with its skin on, it is known assaabuturadand has a stronger, more distinct flavor than the split, skinless variety. It is a "harder" lentil and takes longer to cook. A little soaking is best prior to cooking this daal.
Urad daal with skin removed
Urad daal, has had its black skin removed. It is creamy white in color and has a milder flavor than whole urad daal.
Skinless Urad does not need soaking before it is cooked. It is often ground into flour or a paste and used as part of batters.
Moth Dal (Matki Dal / Turkish Gram)
- Soak for 5 hours
Kulthi Dal (Horse Gram)
Kabuli chana
Also known aschole, garbanzo beans, Egyptian peas and white chickpeas, kabulichana, has a lovely nutty flavor. In India, it is used to make curries, added to salads and even in dips.
Kabuli chana is especially popular in North India. It must be soaked for several hours before cooking as it is a "very hard" bean. You can also use canned kabuli chana which is easily available in supermarkets these days but nothing beats the taste of kabuli chana freshly soaked and boiled just before cooking.
Lobia or chawli (Black eyed pea / Cowpea)
There is no need to soaklobiaorchawli, because it is a relatively "soft" bean that cooks easily. Watch carefully when cooking as it should not get mashed.
Lobia can be used almost similarly to kabulichana (white chickpeas) even though it tastes different.
Rajma
Slightly larger than the Mexican red bean, rajma or red kidney beans are very popular in North India where a well-loved dish is named after them. Not only do they taste great on their own, they make a terrific combination when cooked with vegetables and meats too.
Rajma must be soaked for several hours before cooking to soften it. As with all beans (like kabuli chana, lobia, etc.) that are high in fiber and full of nutrition, rajma has gas-producing enzymes. The trick to beating this is to change the soaking water every few hours (before cooking) and cook them until soft.
Toxicity
Red kidney beans contain relatively high amounts of phytohemagglutinin, and thus are more toxic than most other bean varieties if not pre-soaked and subsequently heated to the boiling point for at least 10 minutes. The US Food and Drug Administration recommends boiling for 30 minutes to ensure they reach a sufficient temperature long enough to completely destroy the toxin. Cooking at the lower temperature of 80 °C (176 °F), such as in a slow cooker, is insufficient to denature the toxin and has been reported to cause food poisoning.
Chickpeas - Kala chana / Black chickpeas / Bengal gram / Desi chana
Types
- Black chickpeas (Bengal gram) / garbanzo beans: These chickpeas come from India where they are sun-dried until they turn a deep rust color. Like regular chickpeas, they have a deep, earthy aroma and a nutty flavor. Black chickpeas can be found in Indian markets and specialty food shops.
Chana dal
These small split desi chickpeas are sold in Indian stores and look very much like yellow split peas. Chana dal have a sweet, nutty taste. In India, chana dal are used to make chickpea flour, while in the United States, the larger kabuli chick-peas are used for flour. Chana dal can be found in Indian stores and some specialty food shops.
Chana daal, looks like a larger version of toor/tuvar or arhar daal. It is made by splitting a smaller cousin of the chickpea.
This lentil has a nutty flavor and is used in dry curries or with vegetables or meats and also as a flour (Bengal gram flour). It cooks fairly quickly and does not need soaking prior to being cooked.
- Chickpea shoots: These feathery shoots of the chickpea plant are excellent in salads. Like fresh green chickpeas, they can occasionally be found in local farmers' markets.
- Chickpea flour: Chickpea flour has a rich culinary tradition in Indian cuisine, where it is known as besan or chana and is used in pancakes, stews, and curries. It is popular as well in Italian cuisine where farina di ceci(chickpea flour) is used to make pasta and a polenta-like dish. Chickpeas are also used in some blended flours, such as garfava flour, a combination of chickpeas and fava beans, and dhokra flour, a combination of rice, lentils, and chickpeas.
- Green chickpeas: Fresh and sweet, like green peas, these are young, tender, fresh chickpeas. They are predominantly found in local farmers' markets.
Health Benefits
Just 1 cup of cooked daal can give you as much as 62 percent of your daily dietary fiber requirement. Daalsalso have high levels of important minerals like manganese, phosphorous, potassium, iron and copper. They are high in folates and the B-vitamins like Thiamin.
- Peanuts / Moong falli / groundnuts / earth nuts / goobers / not nut, legume family
https://www.thespruceeats.com/a-photo-gallery-of-indian-daals-and-beans-4121903
https://myheartbeets.com/different-types-of-indian-dals-legumes-lentils-beans-pulses
Sproutes / Seeds / Sprouted grains
- Radish
- Mustard
- Alfalfa
- clover
- lentil / masoor
- pea / matar / kala chana
- wheat
- mung / Green gram / Sabut moong
https://wholefully.com/sprouting-101
Grains
Semolina / Sooji
Semolina is the coarse, purified wheat middlings of durum wheat mainly used in making upma, pasta, and couscous. The word semolina can also refer to sweet dessert made from semolina and milk.The term semolina is also used to designate coarse middlings from other varieties of wheat, and from other grains, such as rice and maize.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semolina
Sooji vs Rawa / Rava
Rava is finest version. And soji is thicker version.
Usually for crispiness we use rava like in dosa, fitters etc. while soji is use when we need texture like in cake, sweets etc.
Durum Wheat
Durum wheat (/ˈdjʊərəm/), also called pasta wheat or macaroni wheat (Triticum durum or Triticum turgidum subsp.duru), is a tetraploid species of wheat.It is the second most cultivated species of wheat after common wheat, although it represents only 5% to 8% of global wheat production.It was developed by artificial selection of the domesticated emmer wheat strains formerly grown in Central Europe and the Near East around 7000 BC, which developed a naked, free-threshing form. Like emmer, durum wheat is awned(with bristles). It is the predominant wheat that grows in the Middle East.
Durumin Latin means "hard", and the species is the hardest of all wheats. This refers to the resistance of the grain to milling, in particular of the starchyendosperm, implying dough made from its flour is weak or "soft". This makes durum favorable for semolina and pasta and less practical for flour, which requires more work than with hexaploid wheats like common bread wheats. Despite its high protein content, durum is not a strong wheat in the sense of giving strength to dough through the formation of a gluten network. Durum contains 27% extractable wet gluten, about 3% higher than in common wheat (T. aestivumL.).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durum
Buckwheat / kuttu ka atta
Buck wheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), or common buckwheat, is a plant cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. A related species, Fagopyrum tataricum, is a domesticated food plant raised in Asia. Despite the name, buckwheat is not related to wheat, as it is not a grass. Instead, buckwheat is related to sorrel, knotweed, and rhubarb. Buckwheat is referred to as a pseudocereal because its seeds' culinary use is the same as cereals', owing to their composition of complex carbohydrates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckwheat
Millet
Millets are a group of highly variable small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cerealcrops or grains for fodder and human food.
Millets are important crops in the semiarid tropics of Asia and Africa (especially in India, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger), with 97% of millet production in developing countries.The crop is favored due to its productivity and short growing season under dry, high-temperature conditions.
Millets are indigenous to many parts of the world. The most widely grown millet is pearl millet, which is an important crop in India and parts of Africa. Finger millet, proso millet, and foxtail millet are also important crop species.
Millets may have been consumed by humans for about 7,000 years and potentially had "a pivotal role in the rise of multi-crop agriculture and settled farming societies".
- Major - Jowar, Bajra, Ragi
- Minor - Others
| Amaranth | Rajgira/ Ramdana |
| Barnyard | Sanwa/ Samvat ke Chawal |
| Buckwheat | Kuttu |
| Finger millet | Ragi / Nachni |
| Foxtail millet | Kangni / Kakum |
| Kodu / Kodo | Kodon |
| Little millet | Moraiyo/ Kutki/ Shavan/ Sama |
| Pearl millet | Bajra |
| Proso millet (broomcorn millet) | Chena |
| Sorghum | Jowar |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millet
https://www.wellcurve.in/blog/different-types-of-millets
https://pristineorganics.com/millet-ancient-grains-for-a-healthier-future
Other Grains (Gluten Free)
| English | Hindi |
|---|---|
| Rice | Chawal |
| Puffed Rice | Murmure |
| Beaten Rice | Poha |
| Brown Rice | |
| Corn, Maize | Makkai, Makki, Bhutta |
| Polenta | Makkai ka Daliya |
| Oats | Jaee |
| Quinoa | |
| Tapioca Pearls, Sago | Sabudana |
| Water chestnut four | Singhare ka aata |
| Teff | |
| Brown Top Millet | Makra |
Corn is mainly used in North America, however in the UK and other parts of the world, maize is more commonly used. ... For example, corn is most commonly used when referring to food items, such as popcorn, whereas maize is less commonly used to describe these foods, even though it comes from the same crop.
Cornflour and corn flour (two words) are different things
The later one you asked, is makai ka ata which we get from whole kernel. Often known as maize flour and can be used for making roti's and tortilla.
Cornflour is starch which gets from endosperm portion of kernel and used as binding or thickening agent.
https://www.quora.com/Is-corn-flour-same-as-makke-maize-ka-ata
Gluten Free Flours
- Almond flour
- Arrowroot flour
- Chickpea flour
- Cononut flour
- Tapiaco flour
- Cassava flour
- Tigernut flour
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/gluten-free-flours
Gluten Containing Grains
| All-purpose white flour | Maida |
| Barley | Jau / Jav |
| Broken wheat | Daliya (These days there is also gluten free jowar daliya) |
| Bulgar | |
| Couscous | No exact hindi word but it is like thick sooji. |
| Rye | |
| Semolina | Sooji / Rava |
| Vermicelli | Seviyan, Sevaiyan |
| Wheat | Gehoon |
| Whole Wheat Flour | Gehoon aata |
Oils
Processing
- Cold pressed oil = kacchi ghani
- Raw/virgin oil
- Refined oil
Types
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Rice bran oil
- Soyabean oil
- Sunflower oil
- Corn oil
- canola oil
- Mustard oil
- Avocado oil
- Sesame oil
- Coconut oil
- Groundnut oil
- Palm oil
- Ghee
Oils to Avoid
- Fish or algae oil
- Flax oil
- Palm oil
- Walnut oil
4 Healthy Cooking Oils (and 4 to Avoid)
Healthiest Cooking Oils: Which Is Best? – Forbes Health
Utensils
The pan you don't have (but should)
I am SO done with Teflon - YouTube
4 Types of Toxic Cookware to Avoid and 4 Safe Alternatives - YouTube
Bad
- non stick - Teflon
- Aluminium cookware
- Aluminium foil
- Copper cookware
- non stick - ceremic coated pans (not long lasting)
Good
- 100% ceremic cookware
- Stainless steel (Food grade which doesn't contain nickel or chromium)
- Glass cookware
- cast iron
- carbon steel
PFAS (Forever Chemicals)
Polytetrafluoroethylene - Wikipedia
PFAS: The secret toxins in your body - YouTube
- PTFE / PFOA - All PFAS are carcinogenic