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Toor Dal

Also known as: arhar dal, tuvar dal, split pigeon pea, ツールダル

SpicesBite editorialLast reviewed September 2026

What Toor Dal is

The dal behind sambar and most everyday North Indian dal dishes: split, skinned pigeon peas that cook down soft without dissolving, taking on the flavour of whatever is tempered into them. If a recipe just says 'dal' with no qualifier, this is usually the safest thing in the cupboard to reach for.

Pigeon peas (Cajanus cajan) harvested dry, then split in a mill and passed through water to remove their skins — which is why the finished grain is flat, salmon-pink and cooks far faster than the whole brown pod it came from. India grows and eats the overwhelming majority of the world crop; the bags sold in Japan are imported, usually from Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh.

Taste and texture

Mildly nutty and slightly sweet, with a soft but not mushy grain when cooked just done — it holds its shape at a simmer for a while before collapsing into the purée that thickens sambar. Its own flavour is deliberately quiet: this is a carrier dal, built to absorb mustard seed, curry leaf and asafoetida rather than announce itself.

Forms to buy

  • Split, skinless (standard) — The everyday form every dal recipe assumes; no soaking needed.
  • Oily (tel) toor dal — Coated in a trace of oil to keep it from drying out; preferred in Gujarat, rinsed before cooking.

How to cook it

Rinse, then pressure-cook 1 cup dal with 3 cups water for 3–4 whistles (about 10 minutes) or simmer covered for 40–45 minutes until the grain crushes easily. Salt only after it softens. Finish with a tadka — cumin and mustard seed crackled in ghee or oil, poured over the finished dal — and serve over steamed basmati rice or with roti. For sambar, cook it slightly further and whisk it into the tamarind and vegetable base.

Buying note

Sold in 1 kg bags at every Indian grocer in Japan, typically ¥500–¥800; look for a uniform pink-tan colour with no grey, chalky dust or visible insects. Old dal dulls in colour and refuses to soften no matter how long it cooks, so buy from a shop with fast stock turnover rather than stockpiling.

Dishes that use it

  • Dal Tadka — Yellow lentils finished with spices bloomed in hot ghee and poured over at the table.
  • Dal Bhat — Nepal's everyday meal — lentils, rice and greens, eaten twice a day.
  • Veg Thali — A full meal served as small bowls on one tray, built for balance rather than a centrepiece.
  • Steamed Basmati Rice — Plain long-grain rice, cooked so the grains stay separate and dry.

Spices that pair with it

Cuisines

  • Indian — Not one cuisine but a continent's worth, unified by how spices are handled rather than by what is cooked.
  • South Indian — Rice, lentils and fermentation — a lighter, sourer tradition with almost no relation to a North Indian menu.
  • Indo-Nepali — The most common restaurant format abroad: a Nepali kitchen cooking a mostly Indian menu, with momo on the side.

Other pantry staples