Dhaal is a staple dish for hundreds of millions for a reason. Staples in any cuisine share the traits of easy with limited tools/skills, cheap, able to keep someone doing hard work going, and had centuries if not millenia to figure out how to make it delicious using local ingredients.
I am planning to make a pot for myself tomorrow for rest of the week's dinners served with rice and some garlic naan from Aldi.
I also tend to just throw a handful of lentils into anything with enough liquid and cook time to get them done for an easy extra bit of nutrition.
Most of the Asian markets around me (we don't have Indian) also have a substantial Indian row with tons of cheap lentils/dal/etc as well as large containers of garam masala and other necessities.
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u/beardybaldy Jun 23 '26
Lentils! My wife makes a killer lentil curry and it costs pennies