Urad dal
Vigna mungo · Legume
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Urad dal is the dried seed of black gram (Vigna mungo), a small bushy pulse of the Indian subcontinent. Sold whole with a black-grey coat or hulled and split to reveal an ivory-white kernel, it is the protein-rich base of dosa and idli batter, the silky body of dal makhani, and the crunch in many South Indian temperings.
Picking a good onedrag
This season's dalOld, hard, slow to soften
Cupboard stockEveryday bestThe workhorse. Hulled split dhuli needs no soak and melts into a dal in half an hour; whole black sabut wants an overnight soak and a long simmer for dal makhani.
Colour in the bagStill even across the bag, the colour a shade duller
The kernelsA few chipped edges and a light floury dust
Pour and feelHard and dry, the rattle a shade duller
Smell in the bagPapery and neutral, nothing off
What you get from one
100%
Edible part
Nothing to discard - refuse 0, and on the split forms the hull came off at the mill - so the useful number is the swell: 100 g dry cooks up to roughly 240-320 g. That is a range because USDA's two routes disagree across it: composition gives 3.24x, the cooked record's own "1 oz dry, yield after cooking" portion gives 2.43x, and both ends are rounded down.