The Magic of Dal - Schools Pack

The British Dal Festival provides the perfect opportunity to run a cooking workshop and cross-curricular lesson focusing on one of the world’s most economical, simple, nutritious and, above all, delicious dishes. 

Jenny Chandler, author of Pulse and United Nations European Pulse Ambassador in 2016, has created an educational pack, including the Magic of Dal Key Stage 2 Lesson Plan, Dal Images for Classroom Use and Dal Cooking Session Risk Assessment, all available free to schools nationwide. 

Download the materials for free

This lesson is designed to run in a standard class room with just 2 hobs if a kitchen is not available. The lesson plan includes:

  • Setting up the cooking class

  • An Equipment List

  • The Recipe

  • A Risk Assessment Form

  • An introduction to the topic - What is Dal?

  • Plenty of background information to select from, making the cooking session as informative as possible. This could be run as a separate lesson to provide background for the dal lesson or simply be used during the cooking session in order to bring the dish alive.

  • What is a pulse? What is dal?

  • Geography and context

  • History

  • Healthy Eating

  • Sustainability

  • A Challenge

Share your Childrens' Dal Experiences

We would love pupils to write up an A4 page about their dal experience for us to share online and to give you and your pupils a chance to win copies of Jenny Chandler's superb books.

The work could focus on the cooking session, including illustrations or a photograph of the cooked dal. Alternatively the piece could concentrate on the health benefits of eating pulses or any other aspect of the class that has inspired them.

We will be offering two book prizes: a copy of Jenny Chandler's Cool Kids Cook to the pupil who writes the most inspiring piece and a copy of her cookbook Pulse to their teacher.

Are you using the Magic of Dal schools pack?

If you are planning to use the Magic of Dal educational pack, please let us know using the form below: