Fuel
Types of Lentils Each cuisine adopts its own variety for recipes. But lentils are versatile; it’s easy to interchange types to make the same recipe differently, and they can also be used as a low-glycemic grain substitute.
When split and husked, green whole mung beans are small yellow split lentil (mung dal). Green mung is very nutritious and popularly used in salads. The split mung cooks very quickly, and is good in soups, stews, pilafs, and lentil-rice casseroles.
Split chickpeas (chana dal)
Mexican macachiados, which take longer to cook, are large yellow lentils used in chilis and stews.
Ivory white lentils (urad dal)
(split mung dal)
Black whole lentils (whole urad dal) Black whole beans make the ivory white lentil (urad dal) when split and husked. When boiled and cooked, they are firmer, and so black or white dal is a great side dish or salad. In Indian cuisine, white lentil flour is used to make lentil crepes (dosa), rice and lentil steamed cakes (idlis), and lentil fritters (vadas).
Red lentils are very mushy when cooked— great for stews and soups, like tadka dal.
There are many kinds of yellow lentils. Indian pigeon peas are split to medium yellow lentils (tuar dal), and black chickpeas split to large yellow lentils (chana dal). Both are great in quick soups and stews. The large yellow lentils are good in pilafs, casseroles, and stuffing; the flour can make flat breads, dumplings, falafels, and fritters.
Red lentils (masoor dal)
The small dark green French lentil (puy lentils or lentilles vertes du Puy) are perfect for salads, as they are tougher and remain firm after cooking.
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Green whole lentils (mung dal)
Yellow lentils (tuar dal )
There are many kinds of brown/ olive green lentils: German, Indian, Spanish, continental, and more. Brown lentils cook to a mushy consistency, making them great for soups, stew, lentil burgers, and Sloppy Joes.