‘Yeh to daal hai’: Desi netizens roast NYT for its ‘revelatory' lentil soup

The New York Times found itself in a 'soup' among its Indian readers for mislabeling a recipe of simple masoor daal as 'red lentil soup'.

Indian cuisine often includes a serving of daal as a staple component of a basi meal, with a variety of lentils such as toor ( pigeon peas), masoor (red lentil) and moong (green gram daal) being used.

NYT's Twitter post included a caption stating, "I have made this soup at least three dozen times, always yielding the same delicious results." This revelatory lentil soup takes less than an hour to make and has 19,600 five-star reviews."

The recipe was featured on the New York Times’ official website and was curated by Melissa Clark.

It provided a detailed explanation and ingredient list similar to traditional Indian daal, including onions, tomatoes, garlic and a variety of spices.

“Based on Turkish lentil soup, mercimek cobras, it is light, spicy and a bold colour (no murky brown here): a revelatory dish that takes less than an hour to make,” read the description on the website.

However, desi netizens were far from impressed, and the comments section reflected a range of reactions.

One user wrote, “Daal. It's peeli daal. Use a pressure cooker and you won't need "regular blender or a food processor, (to) purée half the soup"

Another user pointed out and said, “It’s literally daal, consumed by millions of Indians everyday.”

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