You first have to wash your moong dal and then put it in a pot with the water. Place the pot on the stove on high heat and let it boil. Once it starts boiling you can put the heat down and add salt and the turmeric into the water. Let the dal boil now on medium heat with a lid on the pot. You can prepare some other ingredients of your meal and just open the pot from time to time to stir to prevent the lentils to stick to the bottom of the pot.

After about 15 minutes, your mung beans should be soft and a little bit mashed in the water. If this is the case, take the pot off the stove. Many people like to eat sour, especially in summer, and there is a way to give your dal a special sour kick! Take an unripe mango, wash and peel it and cut it into pieces. Add a few of these pieces into your dal at this point and you will later have a nice sour hint – and for a kick can eat the pieces of the mangoes, too. But before you start eating, you need to add some spices first.

Take out a small pan and heat up the ghee in it. Once it is hot, add cumin, mustard, garam masala, coriander and asafetida into it. In winter time we would now add small pieces of fresh ginger to give us some heat but of course we don’t need the extra heat in summer. We will not however miss adding curry leaves for extra flavor. Add them into the ghee and stir.

When the spices are a bit roasted but before they burn, take the pan off the fire and mix the spices into the dal. It should still be warm enough but if you feel the need, you can heat it up again a bit more before serving.

Enjoy!