About The Daal Project

The Daal Project is both:

1. A podcast hosted about how South Asians in the diaspora make daal or lentils, and the stories, migrations and politics that surround it.
2. A recipe archive collecting daal recipes from across the South Asian diaspora to celebrate and document the diverse and countless ways that daal is prepared.

"I've never met a daal I didn't like!"

You will hear me, Sayyida, repeat this often. The Daal Project was born out of my love for South Asian food and daal in particular, as well as a respect and admiration for the effort, ingenuity and skill required to prepare different kinds of daal. I grew up eating my mother's daal, which is excellent (mashallah). Though through the Masumeen Islamic Centre in Brampton, where I grew up, I got to taste other daals, like a Zanzibari coconut channa daal, or a Gujarati peanut toor daal with jaggery. They tasted incredible and were so different than my mom's. These daals sparked my interest in learning to make different kinds of daal and about the (usually) women and aunties who made them.

In this current moment of convenience and needing to cook as fast as possible, I am interested in how approaches to cooking daal has changed across time and continents and also want to document the ways our ancestors were preparing daal to the extent possible. If you would like to contribute a daal recipe from the South Asian diaspora, please submit one here.

This site was built by Qays Muhammad Lila. Logo and graphics were designed by Jill Glatt of Magpie Printshop.