LENTILS MASALA / CURRY

Dear friends, how are you all doing? I am back with a post after a long time. My babies are 4 months old now and doing fine. Currently my mother-in-law is staying with us to help us with the babies and she does all the cooking. My entire day is spent with my munchkins. Taking care of 2 infants is quite a challenge and most of the time I am tired and sleepy. At the end of the day all you want is to just go and sleep when one of the babies decides not to sleep  .Coming on to the recipe, I managed to take some photos of dishes when my mother-in-law was cooking. This is one such dish where she was trying to clean my pantry. I had some leftover lentils which I had stocked up for making soup and she made this tasty dish out of them. She had used only a few ingredients here. This was very good with rice and we had the same with chapathis for dinner. The green chilies used here can also be substituted with 1 teaspoon of chili powder.

INGREDIENTS
1. Lentils, any type (I have used dupuy or French lentils). 1 cup.
2. Onions, 1 medium size.
3. Tomatoes, 2, medium size.
4. Green chilies, 2.
5. Ginger-garlic paste, 1 teaspoon.
6. Sambar powder, 1 teaspoon.
7. Any masala powders like garam masala, chicken masala, or biryani powder, 1 teaspoon. ( I have used MTR vangibath masala).
8. Curry leaves, 1 sprig.
9. Chopped cilantro, 2 tablespoons.
10. Salt as per taste.
11. Mustard seeds, ¼ teaspoon.
12. Cumin seeds, ¼ teaspoon.

PREPARATION:
Wash and cook the lentils until they are tender. I used a pressure cooker for cooking the lentils. Chop the onions and tomatoes and slit the green chilies into two. Heat a pan with some oil and splutter the mustard seeds once the oil is hot. Then add the cumin seeds and fry for a few seconds. Add the diced onions and fry for a few minutes until the onions turn translucent. Then add the diced tomatoes, curry leaves, green chilies, ginger-garlic paste and sauté everything for a few more minutes until everything is well blended. Now add the sambar power, masala powder, and salt and cook for a few more minutes until the spices lose its raw smell. Finally add the cooked lentils with 2/3 cup of water, mix everything well, and cook closed for a 3-5 minutes. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with chapathis or rice.