Not Your Mama’s Chickpea…or maybe it is!

Chana Dal; Split Black Gram; Split Bengal Gram

Made from the desi-type chickpea (pictured below), chana dal (pictured above) is rock-bottom-low in its Glycemic Index (GI) – which is a very good thing for preventing (or managing) type II diabetes, heart disease and possibly also cancer. As reported by Mendosa, the Glycemic Index of chana dal is between 5 and 11. Note: Chana dal looks like yellow split peas, but it’s not the same. According to Mendosa, the Glycemic Index for boiled yellow split peas is 32.

(Note re glycemic index: I briefly discussed the glycemic index in in reference to agave nectar. At the end of my post about agave nectar, you will find a number of links to excellent references where you can find a lot more information about the glycemic index.)

Kala (Black) Chana; Bengal Gram; Desi Chickpeas

Horticulturally known as Cicer arietinum, the small desi-type chickpea (which is also called Kala Chana, Black Chana, or Bengal Gram)  refers to the whole intact bean, while chana dal is the split bean with the outer skin removed. Given that the whole chickpea has an outer skin, it must have more fiber than chana dal which has no skin. And because the whole desi-type chickpea  has more fiber than chana dal, it should have an even lower Glycemic Index than chana dal. However, I can’t find any data on the Glycemic Index of intact desi-type chickpeas.

Note: The common chickpeas in the U.S. is the Kabuli-type of chick pea which is larger and lighter in color and has a Glycemic Index of 28 according to Mendosa.

If you live in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, North Africa, and the Middle East, you can find desi-type chickpeas and chana dal very easily. My husband, who is from India, tells me that chana dal is the most common type of dal in Indian cooking and that it’s a large part of the diet of the people who live in the villages in India. In other words, it’s  ”peasant food!” Interestingly, quite often “peasant food” turns out to be among the healthiest food available in a region. Also, a friend from Bangladesh tells me that chana dal is what they eat when they break their fast. Ah! That makes perfect sense. After all, right after a fast, you want to let your blood sugar rise slowly, not spike!

In the U.S., you will need to look for chana dal and desi-type chickpeas in Indian-Pakistani grocery stores, Asian supermarkets, Halal type markets, and Whole Foods (which may just have chana dal). You can also find these foods online and David Mendosa has a good list of online sources but only for chana dal.

Good luck shopping! Have fun!

For now, you can practice with the dal recipe, shown in this step-by-step Howcast video, How to Make Dal (Indian Lentil Stew) . (Just let the advertisement play and then you will get the cooking video).

I tired the recipe shown in the Howcast video but I used chana dal instead of the three different varieties of dal that are called for in the recipe. Also, I made some other changes to this recipe in order to make the final dish both healthier and tastier. Here are all the changes I made:

 

• 4 1/4 cups of chana dal instead of 3/4 cup each of 3 different dals
• 1 tablespoon canola oil instead of 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 large onion – instead of 1 medium onion
• Twice as much garlic – 4 large cloves instead of 2 cloves
• Twice as much ground corriander – 2 teaspoons instead of 1 teaspoon
• Four times as much turmeric – 2 teaspoons instead of 1/2 teaspoon
• Twice as much cayenne pepper – 1/2 teaspoon instead of 1/4 teaspoon (and the resulting dish was not hot!)
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper – instead of not using any. Always add black pepper when you use turmeric!
• 1 teaspoon of a coarse ground sea salt – instead of the unspecified amount of salt
• No butter
• Lots more fresh cilantro which I mixed in when the dal was finished cooking
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice which I mixed into the dal when it was finished cooking
• I used a big heavy pot (the one I make soup in) – not a cast-iron pot.
• I found it just took just 1 hour of simmering for the dal to be cooked, by which time there was just a little water left – most had been absorbed by the dal or evaporated, even though I had kept the lid on the pot, but ajar.

For a long list of wonderful recipes with chana dal and also with kala chana (the intact bean from which chana dal is made), see the many recipes provided at the end of David Mendosa’s page about chana dal.

And…here is the beginning of my growing list of links to recipes that look good to me and contain kala (black) chana, chana dal, or besan flour (the flour that’s made from chana dal).

Chana dal recipes

Some of the recipes below call for already-cooked plain chana dal or give directions for cooking the dal in a pressure cooker before adding spices, etc. Here is a simple stove-top recipe for cooking up a batch of plain chana dal – no pressure cooker needed: Monamifood’s directions for cooking up a batch of plain recipe-ready chana dal.

• Chana Dal recipes from Mahanandi.org, see especially Chana Dal Chaaru and Masala Vada
  
• Chana Dal Tadka (Vegetable Platter blog)For my comments and suggested changes to this recipe, go to Monamifood’s Desi Chickpea Recipe Comments page.

• Nutritious Moong-Chana Dal (Shveta’s Cooking blog)
• Chana Dal with Mustard Greens (I Like Fishes blog)
• Chana Dal (1Spoon.com)
• Methi Chana Dal Curry (Swathy’s blog)
• Chana Dal and Patties (One Life to Eat)
• A Lentil Love Affair (Calcutta Chow)
• One Pot Rice and Dal Combo (Open Salon)
• Chana Dal (International Vegetarian Union)
• Curried Squash with Chana Dal Soup (Delementals)
• Chana Dal Soup (Aayi’s Recipes)
  
• Chana Dal Recipe (Indian Food Forever)
• Laucki Chana Dal (manjulaskitchen.com) – Note this recipe calls for a vegetable that’s not common in the U.S. – bottle gourd (a squash). You can find the delicious (slightly sweet) bottle gourds at Indian markets or Asian supermarkets. Here are some photos of the different size and shapes of bottle gourds – so you can recognize one when you see it.

Desi chickpea/Kala chana/Black chana recipes (including recipes made with sprouted desi chickpeas)

• Kala Chana/ Black Chick Pea Curry (video from showmethecurry.com). For my comments and suggested changes to this recipe, go to monamifood’s desi chickpea recipe comments page.
• Sookha Kala Chana / Dry Chick Pea Curry (about.com)
• Kala Chana (srefoodblog)
• Kala Chana with Puri (malluspice)
• Kala Chana with Gravy (South Asian Women’s Forum)
• Chana Sprouts Curry (Mistress of Indian Spices)
  • Information on how to sprout anything!
• Sprouted Chana Behl (Namu’s Kitchen)
• Chana Chat (Dalitoy)
• What to do with sprouted kala chana? Includes a few quick recipes (Chowhound)

Besan flour (ground chana dal) recipes

• Chickpea Flour Pancakes (Kittee)
• Gram Flour Chilla Pancakes (Mantaskitchen.com)
• Besan Pancakes (Tarladalal.com)
• Gramflour Pancakes (Food.com)
• Chila Chat/Besan Pancake (Abha Sinha.com)
• How to Make Gram Flour Pancakes (eHow)
• Besan Chilla / Gram Flour Pancake (tadkafry.com)
• Chocolate Cocoa Brownies with Dried Cranberries and Chickpea Flour (Lisa’s Kitchen)
  

BEANO to the rescue!
If you are new to eating beans (and other gassy foods such as those in the cabbage family), and you find the gas you get after eating these foods is a problem, there’s help! Just try Beano (an enzyme containing over-the-counter product). It really works (and I am not connected to Beano in any way.)

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

P.S. I’m going to start collecting miscellaneous links to chana dal and desi-type chickpeas because I think they’re so interesting, and here’s the first such link:

• Ayurvedic medicinal plant – Cicer arietinum