What is the Best Dal Brand? 3 Different Types of Dal You Need to Know

Dal is a dish made from lentils and or another split pulses and is popular across India and its sub-continents. Let’s get to know what is the best dal brand and the top 3 different types of Dal you need to know.

What is Dal?

If you happen to visit India or have friends, you must have probably tasted one of their most common soup dishes, Dal. There are several varieties of Dal across India and one cannot say which is better because they are appetizing.

The word Dal means dried split legumes or pulses, usually made from lentils, beans, and peas. Often, Dal is cooked with tomatoes, onions, and other spices partnered with a flatbread like a chapati.

Some Dals are cooked dried or fried added with nuts and other delicious ingredients. But, what is the best Dal brand? Let’s find out in this exciting post!

3 Popular Dals Across India

No matter what pulse you use for your Dal, they all come in three forms: hulled or whole (sabut in Hindi), split with skins left (chika in Hindi), and split and skin removed (dhuli in Hindi).

Urad Dal

You may often see this labeled as Black Lentil, Urad dal has two types, the black and white ones. This kind of Dal is popularly used in Dal Makhani, a Punjabi Dal recipe.

The beans used in Urad dal is known as black gram, a relative of the mung beans. The whole bean is referred to as Urad while the split is the white lentil because the inner parts are white.

Black gram is also used in making idli and dosa batter and also the popular papadum.

Urad Dal is believed to be healthy which improves digestion, controls cholesterol, and has a high amount of protein.

You can find Urad Dal at famous Indian restaurants and homes usually served on special occasions and parties.

Urad Dals are not hard to find, you can easily get them at the grocery according to the variety you need.

Arhar or Toor Dal

Perhaps, the most popular type of dal, the arhar or toor dal is made from pigeon peas. Its famous dal recipe is the Khatti Meethi of the Gujarati region.

In fact, arhar is considered to be the most favorite type of dal in all regions although it has various manifestations.

Usually, toor dal is cooked with rice to provide a full-protein diet for vegetarians. The way this type of dal is cooked also differs per region.

Some health-conscious people enjoy making arhar dal because of its powerhouse nutrients. It contains folic acid, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and Vitamin B.

Because Toor Dal is the most popular type, you won’t have any problems finding this at the groceries or online.

It is best if you can find organic brands to keep up with your healthy lifestyle.

Masoor Dal

Masoor Dal is another popular type of dal which is made from red lentils. You often see this type of dal at the groceries in the US and abroad.

It’s also packed with essential nutrients like Vitamin B1, amino acids, potassium, and iron. Masoor Dal is gluten-free and rich in fiber contents, protein and also low in carbohydrates and fat.

There are various methods of preparing Masoor Dal but is commonly cooked with onions and tomatoes. But of course, you can add other ingredients and spices!

Red lentils are also famous and easy to find, next to toor dal.

Top 3 Dal Brands to Choose From

Dal is famous all throughout India and even to dedicated vegetarians worldwide. It is packed with all the essential nutrients needed such as fiber, protein, and other vitamins.

Therefore, there is an excellent demand for this bean globally and many brands aim to capture the majority’s choice. However, there are only top3 Dal brands which I find very interesting and satisfactory.

Swad Brand

The brand Swad originally came from India and is owned by Patel Brothers, a supermarket chain based in Illinois.

Their humble beginnings made a niche for providing Asian products to the US and finally ventured into making their own line of product brands (Best Taste in Town/SWAD).

Swad particularly offers lentils, beans, spices, and more.

Today, Swad is among its signature brands that offer various food products including the famous Dal, that everyone loves.

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Laxmi Brand

In early 1964, a young engineering student from Kerala went to Fargo North Dakota to finish his education.

All throughout his stay, he hungered for his motherland’s tasty dishes.

Together with some of his colleagues, they have already memorized all the beans that a supermarket displayed near their area.

This hunger created an opportunity for him to build an empire of food products, known as Laxmi or House of Spices.

When the time was right, he opened this business and was fortunate that the need for these products is in-demand.

He specialized in providing quality beans for Dals, flours, ghee, rice, and more. Today, this brand is among the most competitive in terms of providing homemade quality and world-class satisfaction.

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Spicy World

Spicy World of USA partners with various brands from around the globe to distribute quality food products within reach.

It’s a family-owned brand that covers the US and Canada food distribution.

Their product line includes lentils, spices, beans, flours, rice, and more.

All their products are sourced out from partner brands from India and South Asia, Africa, the UK, and other parts of the world.

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What is the Best Dal Brand?

There are different types of dal out in the market and so each type has its own sets of popular brands to choose from.

Among the different types of dals we presented in this post, it seemed that the brand Swad offered a wide variety of Dal ingredients.

Swad brings in different kinds of organic products to meet the increasing demand for healthy food.

This brand aims to offer quality food products such as spices, herbs, beans, and more.

It is a product of India and is well distributed in the US to cater to the needs of vegetarians and everyone who desires to cook these organic legumes.

Summary

In this post, we finally learned what is the best dal brand and that is Swad. Not only that this brand offers the best quality lentils, but also has a rich and diverse history.

Truly, I can say that every food prepared on the table is more than what we see. I personally learned to appreciate its history, culture, and of course, taste.

Have you tried cooking Dal? Let us know how it went in the comments!