• 1 Cup of red lentils,
• 1/2 half a cup of yellow split lentil
• 1/4 cup of Moong lentil/bean
• medium Indian carrot ( they are the large fat variety at Indian grocers, they keep their texture better when cooked and don’t go too mushy if overcooked)
• 1 onion
• 3 potatoes
• 2 green onions
• 1 green pepper
• garlic cloves
• lemon slices
• cube tomatoes or tamato paste

Spices

• 8 fennel seeds
• 10 cumin seeds or powdered cumin
• half teaspoon of mustard seeds or a squirt of mustard if you don’t have powdered mustard or seeds
• heaped table spoon of coriander
• half teasoon of tumeric
• black pepper and salt to taste
• 1 or 2 chopped chilli peppers
• bay leaf or two
• curry leaves if you have them

(If you lack spices you can buy various Daal spice packs, or use Curry powder or garam madala. You will get different overall flavour but still tasty)

Saute the seeds in oil in a karge pot, along with chopped onion till onion is slighlty browned. Toss in the carrots, garlic and chopped white parts of green onions and after some time (like 5 minutes of being covered) toss in diced potatoes.
Add the remaining spices Stir it up so potatoes are frying in the oil and spice mixture. Cover and stir occasionally for 5 minutes, then add enough water to cover all the potatoes and add rinsed lentils. Set to simmer and stir occasionally because the lentils sometimes stick to the bottom. Once the red lentils have mostly dissolved and potatoes are soft add diced green peppers lemon slices, and a few teaspoons of tomato paste. And simmer. If there is too much water and it is too broth like, remove lid and simmer off the excess moisture. You wantan runny oatmeal like porridge consistency.

A dash of balsamic vinegar gives a nice note, but just a small amount.

With tomatoes or paste don’t add immediately with the potatoes as the acids stop the potatoes from breaking down.

You can also fry veg separate from cooking lentils if you are trying to reduce overall time

Sliced ginger to garnish