Dal Soaking Time Chart: Every Daal, Minimum to Maximum Hours
Split daals like red masoor and dhuli moong need no soaking at all, split daals with a bit more body want 30 minutes to 2 hours, and whole pulses (kala chana, rajma, sabut mash, kabuli chana) need 8 to 12 hours. That’s the dal soaking time answer in one line. Below is the chart for every daal, with the minimum, the ideal, the point where a soak turns sour, and the hot-water shortcut for nights you forgot.
The short version
- No soak needed: red masoor, dhuli moong (a 15 to 30 minute soak is optional).
- Short soak, 30 minutes to 2 hours: arhar, chana daal, dhuli mash, chilka moong, sabut masoor, matar daal.
- Overnight, 8 to 12 hours: rajma, kala chana, kabuli chana, sabut mash, soybean, kulthi, safed matar.
- Summer rule: above about 30 °C, change the water after 6 hours or soak in the fridge.
- Rajma: soaking never makes it safe. It still needs a hard boil.
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How long should pulses be soaked? The chart for every daal
“Minimum” is the shortest soak that still makes a real difference to cooking. “Ideal” is what gives the most even texture. “Maximum” is the longest you should leave it at room temperature in a warm kitchen; past that, move the bowl to the fridge.
| Daal | Minimum | Ideal | Max (room temp) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red masoor (dhuli) | None | 15 to 30 min | 2 h |
| Dhuli moong (yellow) | None | 15 to 30 min | 2 h |
| Arhar (toor) | 30 min | 30 min to 1 h | 4 h |
| Chana daal | 1 h | 1 to 2 h | 4 h |
| Dhuli mash (white urad) | 1 h | 1 to 2 h | 6 h |
| Chilka moong, chilka mash | 1 h | 1 to 2 h | 6 h |
| Matar daal (split peas) | 1 h | 2 h | 6 h |
| Sabut masoor (brown) | 1 h | 1 to 2 h | 8 h |
| Sabut moong (green) | 2 h | 4 to 8 h | 12 h |
| Moth (matki) | 2 h | 4 to 8 h | 12 h |
| Lobia | None | 2 to 4 h | 12 h |
| Safed matar (dried white peas) | 6 h | 8 h | 12 h |
| Kulthi (horse gram) | 6 h | 8 to 10 h | 12 h |
| Kala chana | 8 h | 8 to 10 h | 12 h |
| Sabut mash (whole black urad) | 8 h | 8 to 10 h | 12 h |
| Kabuli chana (safed chana) | 8 h | 8 to 12 h | 12 h |
| Rajma | 8 h | 10 to 12 h | 12 h |
| Whole soybean | 8 h | 10 to 12 h | 12 h |
The smaller and more “opened up” the pulse (split, husk off), the less soaking it needs, because water only has a short way to travel. And the bigger, older and harder the bean, the more it pays you back for a long soak (the kala chana guide shows what a full overnight soak does for one of the hardest).
Why soaking shortens cooking and evens the texture
To cook, heat and water both have to reach the centre of a dry, tightly packed pulse. If the water hasn’t got there yet, the outside turns soft and splits while the middle is still chalky, which is exactly the “half mush, half stone” pot everyone has made once.
Soaking does that slow part in advance, at no cost in gas, so the flame only has to soften a bean that’s already wet all the way through; the result is shorter cooking, grains that cook evenly from skin to centre and, in a pressure cooker, often four whistles instead of eight.
- Whole beans roughly double in weight when fully soaked. One cup of dry kala chana fills about two cups once soaked.
- Split daals gain little from long soaks. They soak up water within an hour, and beyond that you’re just waiting.
How to soak daal properly, step by step
- Pick it over. Spread 1 cup of daal on a steel thaali and look for small stones, husk, shrivelled or insect-holed grains. Take them out.
- Wash 2 to 3 times in a bowl of water, rubbing gently between your palms, until the water runs clearer. Skim off anything that floats.
- Add fresh water: 3 cups for 1 cup of split daal, 4 cups for 1 cup of whole pulses. Whole beans swell, and a bean that pokes above the water stays hard.
- Cover loosely with a plate and keep the bowl somewhere cool, away from the stove.
- Time it using the chart. In summer, change the water at the 6 hour mark or put the bowl in the fridge.
- Check it: press a grain between thumb and finger. A well-soaked chana or rajma is plump, smooth-skinned and splits cleanly with no hard white core.
- Drain and rinse once more in fresh water, then cook in fresh water.
The wrinkle test
An hour into soaking, a bean’s skin looks loose and wrinkled, because the skin takes up water faster than the inside. Once the whole bean catches up, it turns smooth and fat again. Smooth means ready; wrinkled means wait.
How to soak pulses faster: the hot-water shortcut
Forgot to soak last night? This proper shortcut works well for whole pulses.
- Wash 1 cup of kala chana, rajma, kabuli chana or lobia and put it in a pot with 4 cups of water.
- Bring to a full boil and let it boil for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Switch off, cover tightly, and leave it for 1 hour (kala chana and kabuli chana do better with 2).
- Drain, rinse, and cook in fresh water as if it had been soaked overnight. Expect it to need a few minutes more than an overnight soak.
For black chana soaking time in hot water without a stove, pour just-boiled water from the kettle over the chana, cover, and leave for 2 to 3 hours. For split daals, plain warm water for 15 to 20 minutes is plenty.
One important line for rajma: the 2 to 3 minute boil in the quick soak is not the safety boil. After soaking, rajma still needs its own hard, rolling boil for at least 10 minutes when you cook it, as set out in our rajma and lobia safety guide.
Can you soak dal overnight? When a long soak starts to ferment
Yes, and for whole pulses it’s the normal way; for red masoor or dhuli moong it’s pointless, and on a hot night it can go wrong.
Soaking water is a warm, wet bath full of starch, and bacteria and wild yeasts love that. In a cool kitchen a 12 hour soak is fine. In a Karachi or Delhi summer, with the room at 35 °C, things start to change within 8 to 12 hours. The signs are easy to spot:
- a sour or “idli batter” smell instead of a clean beany one
- froth or tiny bubbles on the surface
- cloudy, milky water and a slippery, slimy feel on the grains
If you see or smell any of those in daal meant for cooking, throw it away. A long boil won’t take the sour taste out, and you can’t tell by looking which bacteria have grown.
The fix is simple. In the fridge, a soak can stretch to about 24 hours, so a bowl soaked tonight for tomorrow evening belongs in there.
Should you throw away the soaking water?
For cooking, drain and rinse. Soaking water carries dust, loose husk and a share of the hard-to-digest sugars (oligosaccharides) that feed gas-making gut bacteria; pouring it away won’t make daal gas-free, but it helps a little. You lose a small amount of water-soluble vitamins and minerals, while the protein stays in the bean. Always discard rajma water. For split daals soaked only 30 minutes, keeping the water is fine.
Old kitchens soaked the big pulses before bed as routine. Unani practice regards chana, mash and rajma as heavy, slow foods, best softened by soaking and long cooking and paired with a warming spice such as hing, ginger or ajwain. That’s tradition, though the soaking half matches what we now know about even cooking.
Antinutrients: what soaking actually does, honestly
You’ll read that soaking “removes antinutrients”. The fair version: soaking lowers phytic acid (which holds on to some of the iron and zinc in pulses) somewhat, and cooking, sprouting and fermenting lower it further. The lectins that make raw rajma dangerous, and the enzyme inhibitors that interfere with digesting protein, are knocked out by thorough boiling, not by soaking. So soaking helps, but cooking does most of the work, and a normal mixed diet copes with the rest. This chart is about soaking for cooking; eating soaked chana or moong raw as a morning habit is a separate subject with its own safety rules.
Rajma and other kidney beans: never eat them raw or only soaked, and don’t nibble soaked beans to test them. A handful of raw kidney beans can cause hours of vomiting. After soaking, boil hard for at least 10 minutes. Keep soaking bowls out of reach of small children.
Sour soak: froth, a sour smell or slime means the soak has fermented. Throw it away rather than cooking it.
Kidney disease: soaking and discarding the water, then cooking in fresh water, is one method some kidney diets use to lower potassium. How much daal suits you is a question for your kidney doctor or renal dietitian, not this chart.
Pregnancy, older people, young children and anyone with weak immunity: soaked or sprouted pulses should be cooked, not eaten raw.
Myth: salt in the soaking water makes beans hard
This one sticks around, but a little salt in the soak doesn’t toughen beans. Cooks who brine their beans (about 1 teaspoon of salt per litre of soaking water) usually find the skins come out softer and split less. What really keeps pulses hard is old stock, very hard water, and acids such as tomato, imli, amchur or lemon added before the beans are soft. Beans stored for a long time in a hot store can become “hard to cook”, a real, named defect of aged pulses, and no soak fully fixes that; our guide to keeping daal fresh and weevil-free covers how to store them, and the rest of our Grains, Daals & Pulses section has each pulse’s own cooking guide.
Soaking does the slow part for free, while you sleep.
Dal soaking time questions people ask
How long should dal be soaked before cooking?
It depends on the daal. Red masoor and dhuli moong need none, arhar, chana daal and dhuli mash need 30 minutes to 2 hours, and whole pulses such as rajma, kala chana and kabuli chana need 8 to 12 hours. Use the chart above for each one.
Can you soak dal overnight?
Yes, and for whole pulses that’s the standard method. In hot weather, put the bowl in the fridge or change the water after 6 hours so it doesn’t turn sour. Soaking split masoor or moong overnight gains nothing and risks fermenting.
Do you need to soak yellow moong dal or red masoor?
No. Both cook soft in 15 to 25 minutes on the stove without soaking. A 15 to 30 minute soak shortens that a little and helps them cook evenly, but it’s optional.
How long should black chana be soaked in hot water?
About 2 to 3 hours in just-boiled water, covered. If you boil the chana for 2 to 3 minutes first and then leave it covered, 1 to 2 hours is enough. Either way, drain and cook in fresh water.
Is it safe to eat soaked rajma without cooking?
No, never. Soaked rajma still carries the lectin that causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea. It has to be boiled hard for at least 10 minutes and then cooked until completely soft.
Can I cook pulses without soaking?
Split daals, easily. Whole pulses can be cooked unsoaked in a pressure cooker, but they take roughly twice as long and often cook unevenly, with some grains bursting and others still hard. The quick hot soak is the better fallback.
Does soaking dal reduce protein?
No, not in any meaningful way. Protein stays inside the grain. A small amount of water-soluble vitamins and minerals leaks into the water, which is why some people keep the water from a short soak of split daal.
Why is my chana still hard after soaking overnight?
Usually old stock, very hard water, or too little water so the top layer dried out. Next time use 4 cups of water per cup of chana and buy from a shop with quick turnover. A pinch of baking soda in the soak helps with stubborn chana, but rinse it off well.
Can I add baking soda to the soaking water?
A pinch, at most a quarter teaspoon per cup of whole pulses, softens stubborn chana and rajma. More gives a soapy taste and destroys some of the thiamine (vitamin B1). Rinse the pulses well before cooking.