Friday, September 23, 2011

Yellow Split Peas or Split Pigeon Peas (Toor Dal)

Some of you often leave comments saying I eat healthy (because of the vegetable dishes consistently being featured ). Frankly, I still fall short on beans and legumes - supposedly healthy and nutritious as well. The only "bean" related product I regularly consume is tofu (made from soy beans).

Chickpeas (garbanzo), black beans, green beans, lentils - I should try to incorporate them more often and be more adventurous in the variety of beans/legumes available to me. For example, northern beans, navy beans, and yellow split peas were a first for me only quite recently.

Yellow split peas

One of the reasons that sets me back on beans in daily cooking is the pre-soaking I have to do. Yes. THIS STEP. Some legumes need to be soaked overnight, which means I need to know exactly what I am cooking the next day. :O How early ahead do you plan, when cooking a daily meal? Unless there is this dish in my mind that requires a specific ingredient - then planning starts as early as grocery shopping early in the week, even when I am cooking the dish end of the week.

Like many beans/legumes, Yellow Split Peas is a great source of protein, very lean and healthy. According to Wikipedia, yellow split peas are sometimes confused with the Indian Toor Dal (Split Pigeon Peas). How true is that! I don't think I can differentiate Yellow Split Peas and Split Pigeon Peas (Toor Dal). It just happened to me recently - with two varieties right in front of me, and the only reaction I had:

BLANK.




Anyway, I think I was supposed to get the Split Pigeon Peas (Toor Dal) to cook Indian Sambar but I bought Yellow Split Peas instead. Luckily I did not spoil the dish with the wrong legume.

While iron is better absorbed from heme (meat) sources, non-heme (plant) iron is better regulated causing less damage to the body.

I am sharing Yellow Split Peas with My Legume Love Affair - MLLA hosted by What Would Cathy Eat


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