Tomato Capsicum Dal Recipe - Tomato Dal (no Onion no Garlic)

Tomato dal or tomato pappu is one of my favourite ways to cook dal. Although there are thousands of ways to make dal in India, the simple dal recipe with tomatoes has my heart, closely followed by any type of kootu recipe since it includes coconut. I recently tried this version with tomatoes and capsicum (with no onion or garlic) because I love it when Amma adds capsicum to her sambar recipe. Capsicum does add a lovely flavour to dishes.

You can use any variety of dal or lentil you want in this recipe. I mostly use moong dal or toor dal or a mix of them. Masoor dal is also a good addition or option to make this, especially since it cooks way quicker. Generally, a mixed dal dish gives a lovely consistency (like this panchratan dal recipe) and I even thrown in some chana dal when it strikes my fancy.

I have found that the freshness levels of lentils vary outside India and depends on the business an Indian store gets. In fact, the toor dal in Mustafa centre in Singapore used to drive me mad because it just wouldn't cook even after 4-5 whistles, sometimes more. A simple trick can solve this although it takes longer to get to your final dish. Soaking! Soak your dals in warm water for 1 hour or so before pressure cooking and that will give you a mushier, softer dal. Remember that soaked dal needs lesser water to cook so adjust accordingly.

More dal recipes on Edible Garden:
Cumin dal
Sweet and sour dal tadka
Kerala-style dal recipe
Methi dal
Dal fry

TOMATO CAPSICUM DAL RECIPE

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup of toor dal (tuvar dal)
2 tbsp of moong dal (split green gram)
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
1/2 cup of chopped, ripe tomatoes
1/2 cup of cubed green capsicum (bell pepper)
1 tbsp of ghee or oil
1 tsp of cumin seeds
1/2 tsp of black mustard seeds
A few curry leaves
A generous pinch of hing (asafoetida)
1/2 tsp of sugar or powdered jaggery (optional)
2-3 of green chilies, sliced (adjust to taste)
Salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Soak the moong dal and toor dal for about 30 minutes if you've had trouble cooking them to a mush in the past. Usually, older lentils take longer to cook.

2. Then, pressure cook the lentils with tomatoes, capsicum, green chillies, and turmeric for 12 mins or 4 whistles. Set aside to cool down.

3. Open carefully and mush the dal further with the back of a rounded spoon.

4. Heat the ghee or oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds.

5. When they pop, add the cumin seeds and let them sizzle and brown for 10 seconds.

6. Follow with the curry leaves and hing.

7. Quickly add the cooked dal to this and mix well. Add sugar, if using, and salt. If the dal is too thick at this stage, add some water and bring to boil. If the dal seems too watery, simmer it for a few minutes until it thickens.

Notes:

• The consistency of dal is really up to personal choice. I light mine a bit on the thicker side, especially when serving with rotis
• If you don't have a pressure cooker or want to cook this dal without one, use a quicker cooking lentil like masoor dal or moong dal alone and cook in a pan with lots of water until mushy. Make sure to keep the heat low and the pan partially covered
• You can add some fresh, chopped coriander leaves instead of curry leaves

That's it! Simple and delicious tomato capsicum dal is now ready. To get this recipe in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, etc, use the Google translate button in the sidebar.

Like or pin this recipe using the buttons below to share the love! :)

Beetroot Leaves Dal - Masoor Dal Recipe with Beet Leaves

Learn how to use beetroot leaves in cooking this simple masoor dal recipe that's a great side dish for roti, chapati, and pulao. Wondering if beetroot leaves are edible and if you can use them in cooking? Yes, you can! Check out this easy recipe with beetroot leaves and make a great vegetarian dish that's healthy too!

Sydney has a lot of great fresh product markets and I am lucky enough to live close to Orange Grove Markets which is a great Saturday morning farmers market that primarily focuses on fresh organic produce and food. The first time I visited, I went crazy buying all the organic greens I could find. I also bought a bunch of gorgeous beetroots with their leaves still fresh and intact. They were dug up the previous day so even the mud on the roots was still moist!

I had never seen beets so fresh let alone with their leaves and roots intact so I was determined to put the bunch to good use. I knew beet leaves were edible but had no idea what to cook with beetroot leaves so a simple dal seemed to the best idea. Can't go wrong with that!

While fresh green beetroot leaves are definitely edible and great to cook with, cleaning it does take some extra effort. Since they were organic, I wasn't worried about washing away the chemicals and pesticides but there is a lot of mud towards the bottom of the stem and that needs careful cleaning because, really, no one likes extra sandy texture in their dals :) Since I had a lot of greens, I made a thick sabzi-like dal with less masoor dal and more greens. You can adapt the consistency to your preference and make it more watery too. Treat beetroot leaves just like spinach when you cook with them, I am sure they taste great in other recipes if you substitute them for spinach.

Paired with a simple pulao, beetroot leaves dal made a fabulous side dish for lunch that Saturday.

BEETROOT LEAVES MASOOR DAL RECIPE

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS:
6 cups of packed chopped beetroot leaves
3/4 cup of masoor dal (red lentils)
1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp of oil
1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of minced garlic or garlic paste
A pinch of asafoetida (hing)
1 tsp of red chilli powder
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
1 tsp of garam masala (optional)
1 tsp of ghee (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. First we need to clean the beetroot leaves. Chop off the beets from the stems using a sharp knife.

2. Chop up the stems and leaves coarsely. You will end up with a mound of chopped greens.

3. Transfer this to a large bowl with water. The water should be enough to completely cover the beet leaves and for them to float, so use a large enoug bowl. . Gently agitate the chopped leaves with your fingers, giving it a good swish in the water. Let it sit for 5 mins or so.

4. Gently take fistfuls of the beet leaves and transfer to another bowl. Continue to skim the leaves away and move to another bowl, squeezing out the water as you do this.

5. You'll be left with a good amount of mud at the bottom once all the leaves are out and you drain the water. Repeat the above steps until the water runs clear, I had to do it thrice. Set the beet leaves in a colander to drain out the water as you proceed to make the dal.

6. Heat a large pan and add the oil, cumin, and garlic. Roast for a minute and then the hing, give it 5 mins and then the tomatoes.

7. Once the tomatoes turn a bit soft, add the washed beet leaves.

8. Top this up with washed and rinsed masoor dal, turmeric, chilli powder, and some salt. Add 2 cups of water to this.

9. Mix well and cook covered on low flame for about 10-12 mins or until the dal is cooked soft and mushy.

Masoor dal takes little time to cook, that's why I chose it to make this dish with it. Add more salt if required and adjust the water to your preferred consistency. These measurements will give you a thick-ish dal with more greens than dal. Add the ghee and garam masala if you are using them and give it another good stir. Remove from fire.

Serve masoor dal with beetroot leaves with jeera pulao or chapatis for a delicious and healthy meal.

Edited to add: some readers have shared that washing the leaves whole is easier and preserves more nutrition. On the nutrition part, I concur since I am no expert on nutrition beyond the basic stuff born out of common sense. On the ease part, I wash spinach and pretty much all other leaves whole but with beet leaves, I wasn't able to get all the mud and sand out the first time I tried that and ended up biting into sand in a sabzi I made. This method was more effective. Use your discretion, folks :)

Spinach Kootu Recipe - South Indian Kootu Recipe with Spinach

Spinach (keerai in Tamil, cheera in Malayalam, palak in Hindi) is one of those vegetables that I ate while growing up only because my grand mom told me repeatedly that it would aid growing hair. So I ate spinach in all forms - cheera thoran, palak dal, palak pulao, even keerai masiyal - and I guess I did have thick hair as a child but it was always chopped off when it reached shoulder length anyway. When I fought with my mom over this, she switched the story over and said spinach is actually good for your eyes too. Well, ok. My eyes stay with me forever so that seemed like a good enough reason.

This was back when I was too young to realise how special a home-grown, organic bunch of spinach actually is. My grand mom would spend hours squatting near them as they grew, often plucking out worms and caterpillars by hand. She was quite an edible gardener, my grand mom. Of all the vegetables we grew on our terrace, spinach was the most successful and most loved by her. She would make a Reddiar-style masiyal (we call it sithondu kooraku) with them which looked like ground henna leaves but was out of this world in its simplicity and flavour.

{My favourite? It's this chow chow kootu that's wonderfully flavourful}

I don't remember eating a lot of Spinach Kootu as a child but this one is a favourite now and I serve it with both rasam and rice and also chapatis. For pairing with kootu, pick a rasam without dal, like this tomato rasam or this pepper rasam.

SPINACH KOOTU RECIPE

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup of moong dal (cherupayar, paasi paruppu)
3 cups of packed, chopped spinach leaves
1 tomato (optional)
1/3 cup of grated coconut
1 tsp of cumin seeds (jeera, jeerakam)
2 shallots
1/2 tsp of minced garlic
1/2 tsp of red chilli powder
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
2 tsp of oil
1 tsp of mustard seeds

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Wash the dal and add to a large cooking pot along with the spinach, chopped tomato (if using), turmeric, and 2 cups of water.

2. Simmer until the ingredients are cooked and soft. This takes about 10-12 mins on low flame. If not done, cook longer and add more water if required.

3. Meanwhile, grind together coconut + shallots + garlic + red chilli powder + cumin seeds with some water to a smooth paste.

4. Add this to the cooked dal mixture along with 1 cup water. Note that if the cooked dal is watery, you can skip adding more.

5. Simmer for another 5-8 mins. Add salt.

6. Heat the oil in a small pan and add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add to the cooked kootu. Mix well.

Serve spinach kootu hot with rasam and rice or chapati / roti. You can make this kootu with chana dal (kadala paruppu) too.

Bok Choy Dal Curry | Bok Choy & Lentils | Bok Choy Recipes

There are so many different dal recipes in my life, coming to think of it. There's the generic dal tadka which is my go-to recipe with roti or chapatt. There's the dal makhani which I rarely make unless we have company. Then there's the Kerala-style dal curry with moong dal that's a favourite because we add coconut to it and it goes with roti / chapati and rice equally well.

When amma was visiting me in May this year, she was very smitten with all the green in the wet market here, particularly bok choy. Bok choy, also called Chinese cabbage, is generally steamed or lightly sauteed and eaten with rice. I haven't cooked with it after making a stir fry with it - Stir Fried Bok Choy Recipe.

Bok Choy / Chinese Cabbage

Anyway, we saw fresh bok choy in the market and amma wanted to make Kerala-style dal curry with it. So that's exactly what we did!

Kerala-Style Dal Curry with Bok Choy

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Serves 4-6
Recipe source: Amma

Ingredients:
2 bok choy (Chinese cabbage)
� cup roasted moong dal
� cups grated coconut
2 shallots
� tsp turmeric powder
� tsp jeera
4 green chillies
Salt to taste

For tempering:
2 tsp (coconut) oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
3-4 shallots (ulli, chinna vengayam), sliced
A few curry leaves

How to Make Dal Curry:

1. Grind coconut with jeera, shallots, and some salt to a fine paste with water.

2. Add the dal, chopped bok choy, green chillies, and coconut mixture to a pressure cooker along with 1 cup water and cook for 2-3 whistles.

3. Heat oil for tempering and add the other ingredients. When the mustard seeds pop and the shallots turn golden, dunk into the cooked dal. Mix well and adjust salt if required.

Tastes fabulous with rice, vatha kuzhambu, chips, and some raw sliced onions (which is kinda weird, I know, but we eat it almost every day with rice at my mom's place!).

Methi Leaves Yogurt Curry | Vendhaya Keerai Mor Kuzhambu Recipe

I love pretty much all forms of mor kuzhambu (spiced buttermilk curry), especially the Kerala-style moru kachiyathu. It's extremely simple to whip up and tastes great with rice and a spicy side dish. This vendhaya keerai mor kuzhambu is unique, delicious, and has a wonderful blend of flavours that any mor kuzhambu lover would appreciate and enjoy.

Also check out the green mor kuzhambu with coriander leaves.

I also love cooking with methi leaves (fenugreek leaves) and the lovely aroma it gives to the final dish. So when I saw this rural Andhra mor kuzhambu (called Thonthana in telugu) in Cooking with Pedatha that uses dal in the mix along with greens and yogurt, I was totally hooked until I tried it.

The flavours are simple, yet complex, and the end result is absolutely delicious.

Methi (Fenugreek) Leaves Yogurt Curry | Vendhaya Keerai Mor Kozhambu |

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 4
Recipe adapted from: Cooking with Pedatha

Ingredients:
� cup of toor dal / pigeon peas
� cup of channa dal / Bengal gram
1 bunch of methi (fenugreek) leaves / vendhaya keerai (or 3/4 packed cup frozen methi leaves)
2 cups of thick plain yogurt beaten with 1 cup water
1 tsp of tamarind paste (or � cup tamarind water)
� tsp of turmeric powder
� tsp of hing / asafoetida
A few curry leaves
1 tsp of ghee
Salt to taste

For the paste:
� cup of grated coconut (I used coconut pieces)
2" piece of ginger
� cup of chopped coriander leaves
3-4 green chillies

For tempering:
1 tbsp of oil
3-4 of dry red chillies
� tsp of black mustard seeds

How I Made It - Step by Step Pictures: 

0. Pressure cook both the dals with enough water until soft. The toor dal will be cooked soft while the channa dal will be soft but most of it will retain its shape. This is perfect. Mash it up a bit.

1, 2. Grind together the ingredients for the paste with a little water until smooth.

3. Add this paste to the cooked dals and set aside.

4. Heat the oil for tempering in a large kadai / pan and add the mustard seeds, hing, and red chillies.

5. When the mustard seeds pop, add chopped methi leaves and stir well.

6. When the leaves start to wilt and give out a nice fragrance (in about 3-4 mins), add the turmeric powder and mix well.

7. To this, add the dal-paste mixture and mix well. Add tamarind paste and salt.

8. Add curry leaves, mix well. Let the mixture simmer for a few mins.

9. Now add the diluted yogurt mixture and stir well until the curry is heated all the way through. No need to boil beyond this point. Check for salt and adjust if needed.

10. Turn off the flame, add the ghee to the mixture and stir well to combine. Remove from fire.

Serve warm with rice and any curry of choice. I made a simple okra fry to go with this.

The combination of lentils, yogurt, and methi leaves is really amazing in this curry. It does take longer than the usual curries I make (I prefer to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible) but the extra time is totally worth it!

Try it!

UPDATE: a lot of you emailed and commented asking about the bowl I have used in the picture. It's from FabIndia and costs Rs. 750. I bought it about a year back so not sure of availability now. I also used it in my Punjabi Chole Masala Recipe :)

Jeera (Cumin) Moong Dal | Dal Recipes | 660 Curries

Jeera Dal or Cumin Dal is yet another super easy dal recipe from 660 Curries. There really isn't anything special or secret about the ingredients, yet following Raghavan's recipe lead to this great basic dal recipe that goes superbly with rotis or a simple pulao.

Being vegetarian (Amrith) and mostly vegetarian (me), lentils are an integral part of our meals and bringing in some variety always helps. This uses the same base (moong dal cooked to a mashed pulp) as the sweet and sour moong dal recipe but the taste is significantly different by altering a few of the ingredients.

Jeera (Cumin) Moong Dal | Basic Dal Recipes

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves 2-3
Adapted from: 660 Curries

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of moong dal / split green gram
A pinch of turmeric powder
2" piece of of ginger, chopped
3-4 dry red chillies, torn into halves
1 tbsp of ghee or oil
1 tsp of jeera / cumin seeds
1/4 tsp of asafoetida / hing
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves, chopped, for garnish (optional)

How to Make Jeera Dal:

1. Pressure cook the moong dal with turmeric powder and enough water to cover it for 3-4 whistles. Mash the cooked dal until creamy and set aside. I use my immersion blender to puree dal for dal recipes. Makes the job super easy!

2. Heat the ghee or oil in a pan and add the cumin and red chillies. Fry until the cumin turns golden and the chillies turn almost black (take care not to burn them). Remove from fire and add the asafoetida and ginger. Saute until the ginger wilts in the heat and dunk the entire mixture into the dal. Add salt and chopped coriander leaves.

Goes really well with rotis or a mild vegetable pulao.

Sweet and Sour Moong Dal Tadka Recipe

A sweet and sour dal recipe with moong dal, one of my favourite ways to cook dal and serve with chapatis or rotis.

Towards the end of last year, I decided to cook my way through Raghavan Iyer's 660 Curries. Then I decided to wake up and get a life. That project, if I'd gone through with it, would have killed me for sure. I did make over a dozen recipes from the book as a start and this simple sweet and sour moong dal tadka is one of my favourites which I've made repeatedly since the first time I tried it almost a year back. This moong dal recipe also uses no onion or garlic, perfect dal recipe during fasting or if you avoid onion and garlic from your diet. You may also like this simple jeera dal, tomato dal with no onion or garlic, and a simple dal with watercress leaves.

There are thousands (millions?) of different ways to cook with dal or lentils in India and I have my small collection going on here in Edible Garden too. Pick your favourites from all dal recipes here. 

Sweet and Sour Moong Dal Tadka

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves 4
Recipe adapted from: The Amazing Book - 660 Curries

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of split moong dal / cherupayar / paasi paruppu
2 tsp of ghee or oil
1/4 tsp of mustard seeds
1 tsp of cumin seeds / jeera
1/2 tsp of red chilli powder (adjust to taste)
A large pinch of turmeric powder
1/4 tsp of asafoetida / hing
1 tbsp of grated jaggery, brown sugar, or sugar
1 strand of curry leaves
Salt to taste
1 large tomato, chopped into small pieces

Instructions:

1. Pressure cook the moong dal with turmeric powder until soft and mushy. You can also cook it in a pot with enough water to cover the dal. This will take you much longer, about 45 mins to an hour, to get the dal mushy and ready.

2. Heat the ghee or oil and add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the curry leaves and the jaggery (or sugar), cumin seeds, asafoetida, and red chilli powder. Keep roasting the tomatoes until they turn soft and mushy - about 3-5 mins. Add salt.

3. Add the cooked moong dal and mix well. Add more water and bring to boil if it's too thick. If too thin, let the dal cook on medium-high heat until the desired consistency is reached. Check for salt and remove from fire.

Serve hot with chapatis / rotis or jeera rice.

Raghavan's version doesn't have tomato added but I decided to add some to make the dal more tart. Tomato pappu with toor dal is one of my favourites and it really works well with moong dal too.

For this dal recipe in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, etc please use the Google translate button in the sidebar

Methi Leaves Sambar-Vendhaya Keerai Sambar Recipe

Learn how to make Methi Sambar with this easy recipe using methi leaves and a great and fresh Sambar recipe. 

Today is a leap day, a once-in-4-years type thing that I didn't want to miss so although I am in KL living out of a suitcase for the next couple days, I wanted to share something here using the very wonky Internet from my hotel room.

Any recipe that amma sends me, especially if it's along with 'styled' pictures that my uncle Radha mama takes, is special. Methi, or fenugreek leaves, are not very common in Kerala and you don't often see it in every vegetable stall. So amma grew her own (but of course). Then she made sambar with it and I think her argument was "if you can make dal with it, I can make sambar with it". Well of course you can amma. The cherry tomatoes you see in the pic are also from her small garden.

Here's the recipe, from her kitchen to yours.

Amma's Methi Sambar (Vendhaya Sambar) Recipe

Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 40 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
1 bunch fresh methi (fenugreek leaves), cleaned and chopped
1/2 cup toor dal, (pressure) cooked until soft and mushy
1 carrot, chopped (optional)
1 tomato, chopped (or a few cherry tomatoes, halved)
A handful of shallots, peeled
1 lemon-sized ball of tamarind
2 tbsp sambar powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
A pinch of sugar
Salt to taste

For tempering:
1 tsp ghee or oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp powdered jeera / cumin
A generous pinch of hing / asafoetida
A few shallots, sliced long

How to Make Vendhaya Keerai Sambar:

1. Soak tamarind in 1 cup warm water for 15 mins. Extract juice and discard the pulp. Transfer this to a pan along with the sambar powder, salt, turmeric powder, tomato, shallots, carrot and chopped methi leaves. In Kerala, a typical sambar consists of a few vegetables all added in together and this is how amma makes her sambar. You can omit the carrot if you want to keep it simple but the tomato is definitely recommended.

2. Bring the above mixture to boil with 2-3 cups of added water for about 15 mins. Add sugar and the cooked dal. Bring to boil and mix well. Adjust salt. Remove from fire.

3. Heat a small pan and add the ghee along with the rest of the ingredients for tempering. When the mustard seeds pop and the shallots turn a light brown, remove from fire and dunk straight into the cooked sambar. Mix well.

Note: Don't add curry leaves or coriander leaves to this sambar. This is to ensure that the flavour of the methi is dominating. I know the picture has some coriander leaves but that's just amma trying to make the sambar look pretty for the picture :)

Huge thanks, as always, to Amma and Radhmams for the Vendhaya Keerai Sambar pictures and recipe :)

Watercress & Yellow Moong Dal Recipe

These pictures have been lying in my drafts for ages. In fact, TH's amma made this one day along with the chow chow kootu which I managed to post much earlier. I have made this dal twice after this first time she tried it.

Watercress is not something that makes it into my regular shopping list. In fact, before amma came and tried this, I'd never even tasted it. It definitely has a strong flavour which I thought went beautifully with dal.

Watercress Yellow Dal Recipe
Serves 4
Recipe source: TH's amma
Some other recipes from her: chow chow koottu | kadala kozhambu | tomato juice rasam

Ingredients:
1 bunch watercress
1/2 cup toor dal or moong dal, washed and soaked for 30 mins
1 large onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped (optional)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder

For tempering:
1 tsp ghee or oil
1/4 tsp fennel seeds / perum jeerakam
1/4 tsp cumin powder or seeds / jeera
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1 red chilli
A generous pinch of hing

How It's Made:

1. Wash and chop the watercresses leaves fine. Add to the soaked dal along with the rest of the ingredients (apart form the tempering ones) into a pressure cooker with enough water to cover it by an inch.

2. Cook for 3-4 whistles or until the dal has cooked soft and mashed well with the leaves and other ingredients. Let the steam vent and keep the dal mixture ready to temper.

3. For tempering, heat ghee (or oil) in a pan and add the rest of the ingredients in the order given. When the mustard seeds start to pop and the cumin and fennel turn aromatic, dunk into the dal and keep partially closed for a while while the flavours blend. Add salt.

Serve hot with rice or roti.

I think I have posted every day this week. Its not some personal challenge or anything. I have a ton of great recipes like these waiting to be posted and the backlog is huge. Sorry if I am spamming your readers :)

Dal Panchratan / Pancharatni (Dal Curry with Five Lentil Types)

Dal or lentil curry is my go-to dish when my vegetable tray looks empty and I need a quick-fix lunch or dinner. Both TH and I love it with roti and if I am in no mood to mix, roll, and cook up rotis, I just make an easy jeera rice (please ignore the pictures in that jeera rice post. kthanx) and we are good to go.

What's better than a simple dal tadka or dal makhani? Dal Pancharatni! Panchratan means five jewels and in this particular recipe we use a mix of five different types of dal or lentils. A dal cannot get more interesting than that!

I got a bag of mixed dal from a  supermarket in Delhi when I was there last. This makes the job of making panchratan dal so much easier because otherwise you'd have to buy the dal separately. I haven't seen this in Singapore though.

Dal Panchratan / Pancharatani Recipe
Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
4 tbsp chana dal (split Bengal gram)
1/4 cup tuvar (arhar) dal
1/4 cup moong dal (split green gram)
3 tbsp urad dal (whole black lentils)
1/4 cup masoor dal (split red lentil)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 large tomato, pureed
1 large onion, ground to a paste
1" piece of ginger, grated
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp red chilli powder
Salt to taste

For tempering:
2 tsp ghee (or oil)
1/2 tsp jeera / cumin seeds
1/4 tsp mustard seeds (optional)
A few curry leaves

How I Made It:

1. Pressure cook the mixed dal (lentils) with 5 cups water and the turmeric powder for 4-5 whistles or until the dal is cooked mushy. Alternately, bring the dal and water mixture to a boil and simmer on low heat until cooked. This will take between 45 mins to an hour.

2. Heat oil for tempering in a kadai (that's big enough to hold everything) and add the ingredients in the given order. Let the cumin seeds splutter and turn brown and the mustard seeds (if using) pop. Next, add the ginger and garlic and fry for a minute.

3. The onion paste and red chilli powder go in next. Cook until the paste is fried to a ligher colour (about 3-4 mins). Next, add the pureed tomato and salt. Mix well and let it simmer for another 3-4 mins.

4. Finally, add the cooked dal, mix well and simmer for 5 mins until all the flavours have blended. Check salt.

Best served hot with roti or lightly flavoured pulao / pilaf.