Dal is to India what pasta is to Italy. Cheap to produce, highly nutritional, suitable for long storage and capable of being cooked in a basic pot on an open fire, dal has been providing nourishment to millions of Indians for millennia. It truly is a pan-Indian dish consumed by rich and poor alike. It is high protein and has practically no sugar in fact it is known as poor mans meat in India hence doctors now include this as an essential item in a diet for diabetics.