BLACK URAD - BLACK GRAM - WHOLE DAL

Black urad is grown in Indian Subcontinent. It is widely used to make dal soup. It is rich in nutrients and can be a great addition to vegeterian dish.

How to make

Please check out the recipe HERE

The black urad is a smooth, cylindrical oval-shaped, protein-rich dal (mostly known as urad dal or black gram). Although it is also found in parts of tropical Asia, India is the prime cultivator of black gram. It's a common ingredient in South Asian cooking and is mainly used to make Indian soup - dal. It comes in various forms, including whole, dehulled, and split beans.

Scientific Properties

Common Name: Black Gram, Black Urad, Urad Bean, Black Lentil

Botanical Name: Vigna Mungo

Kingdom: Plantae

Family: Leguminosae (Fabaceae)

Origin: India

Specie: V. mungo

Background and Native Country

The wild ancestor of the black urad, also found in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Myanmar is native to India.

With 1.5 million tonnes of seeds produced annually, India has overtaken Fiji, Mauritius, Africa, and the Caribbean countries as the world's largest producer of Black urad.

Mostly grown during the Kharif and Rabi seasons known as summer monsoon, it is primarily farmed in coastal Andhra Pradesh.

Vigna mungo is a black gram's botanical name and is generally known as Urad Dal in Hindi. Punjabis refer to this lentil lovingly as Maa Ki Daal (Mother's Lentil).

The black gram is cultivated as a fodder crop in the USA and Australia.

Cultivation

Black urad is an erect, hairy shrub with trifoliate leaves and tiny yellow blooms that grows up to 30 to 100 cm in height with stems distributed from the base. The fruit is spherical, and the hairy pods hold 4 to 10 black seeds.

Black gram comes in four forms:

• whole with skin
• whole but skinless
• split with skin
• split and skinned

Taste and Texture

The Urad dal has a strong an...