My favourite - Basic Dal

I love dal. You can have it with practically everything. Rice, Roti, Dosa or you could just have a cup of dal if you are on diet. It is high in proteins and tastes good too! Here's my recipe that serves 2 people:

Time it takes: 15 mins

Ingredients:

I cup dal

one pinch turmeric

2 tomatoes

4 - 5 green chillies cut in the center

Salt and chilli powder as per your taste.

2 tbps Oil/ghee

few pods of garlic (optional), curry leaves, Jeera, mustard and chopped coriander

Method:

1. Put 1 cup of dal with 1.5 cups of water (actually quantity of water depends on how thick you want it. You can add more at any point) with tumeric, finely chopped tomatoes and the green chillies into the cooker and cook it for 4 to 5 whistles.

2. In a heavy bottom pan, add ghee, saute the garlic, jeera, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Once it starts to smell good (trust me, you will identify the smell), pour the cooked dal from the cooker and add salt and chilli powder. Stir and cook for 7 mins.

3. Top it with chopped coriander leaves

I suggest you check the taste before you say you're done. It might just end up salty/spicy or bland. The thing about dal is that you can always rectify mistakes.

POSSIBLE MISTAKES AND HOW YOU CAN RECTIFY:

1. If it's bland, duh! add some salt and chilli powder.

2. If it's too salty, add more water and boil it more.

3. If it's spicy, once it's cooked, squeeze lemon into it. But do not reheat after adding lemon. It will make it bitter.