Here’s the current selection of lentils in my kitchen:

lentils
Green lentils from Fry’s (Kroger) grocery store, red lentils from the bulk section at Sprouts, split urid dal and toor dal from Lee Lee Oriental Supermarket.

Brown or Green Lentils – “khaki” colored. Found in well-stocked regular grocery stores in the bean section, usually in a 1-pound bag.

green_lentil

Red Lentils – “salmon” colored. A split lentil. Fairly easy to find in the bulk sections of natural foods or farmers markets.

red_lentil

Toor Dal (Split Pigeon Peas) – looks similar to yellow split peas. A split lentil. Found in specialty grocery stores carrying Asian and Middle Eastern foods.

toor_dal

Split Urad/Urid Dal (also known as Split Matpe Bean or Split Mahn Bean/Dal) – creamy white in color. This is urad dal with the black skin removed, and the bean split. Found in specialty grocery stores carrying Asian and Middle Eastern foods.

urid_split

Urad/Urid Dal (also known as Black Gram or Matpe Bean or Black Mahn Bean/Dal) – black in color, with a small white ‘eye’. Found in specialty grocery stores carrying Asian and Middle Eastern foods.

urid_whole

urid_bag
Whole urid in the bag. From Indo-Euro Foods, a small specialty grocery.