Gujarati Daal (Lintels)

In one of the recent dinner parties we went to, a good friend of ours served this amazing dish. It was so light and tasty that I had rice and naan as an accompaniment to this as a main dish!!! This daal is a common dish in a gujarati household but is definitely an indulgence in my home which I will keep making time and again. I have made some small changes to the traditional method of preparation like adding moong daal and since I did not have kokum I substituted with amchur powder (dried mango powder) and lemon juice.

Ingredients
Toor Daal -- 1 cup
Moong Daal - 1/2 cup
Tomato - 1 no medium size
Green chillis -- 2 nos chopped
Turmeric - a pinch
Ginger -- 1 tsp grated
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Amchur Powder - 1/2 tsp
Perungayam (Asofeteida/ Hing) - a pinch
Lemon juice - 2 tsp
Jaggery (gud/ vellam) -- 1 tsp powdered
Salt to taste
Curry Leaves - 4-5 leaves chopped
Coriander Leaves  to garnish
Water as needed

For Tempering
Oil/Ghee - 1/2 tbsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin Seeds (Jeeragam) - 1/2 tsp

Method
1. Wash the daal and pressure cook the daal along with chopped tomatoes, green chillis, turmeric, water and a couple of drops of oil. The oil will not let the daal to overflow when cooking.
2. Once cooked remove the daal mixture from the cooker. Add water if necessary to make a soup like consistency.
3. In a deep vessel, add the cooking oil or ghee and mustard & cumin seeds. Once the mustard seeds splutter, add the cooked daal.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients except lemon juice and coriander leaves. Cook for 5 minutes until all the ingredients blend together nicely. If needed add more water to daal to maintain the soup consistency.
5 Remove from flame and add lemon juice, mix well and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve warm with rice, chappati, naan for a simple yet delicious meal.