Ingredients:

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
   1      medium        onion
   1      small         tomato
     1/2  teaspoon      cumin seeds
   4      teaspoons     oil
   1 1/2  cups          thur dal -- (or any lentil)
     1/2  teaspoon      turmeric powder
   1      teaspoon      salt -- (or more), to taste
     1/2  teaspoon      sugar

Preparation:

1. Add water to thur dhal in the ratio 2:1. Steam it. The thur dhal should be very soft after steaming. I use a pressure cooker to steam it. I wait for 3 or 4 whistles from the cooker. It takes about 15 minutes to cook and 15 minutes more for the pressure in the cooker to go down. 2. After you get the steamed dhal, mash it lightly. 3. Cut onion and tomato into small pieces 4. Heat oil in a pan for 30 seconds. 5. If you have cumin seeds, add it to the pan and go to the next step before the seeds turn black. 6. Add onion to the pan and fry them. 7. Add turmeric powder to the pan. 8. Fry the mix for about 7 minutes (until the onion turns brown) 9. Add tomato to the pan and fry for 3 or 4 more minutes. 10. Add the steamed thur dhal (along with the water in it) and add one more cup of water. 11. Add salt and sugar and heat the mix for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. 12. Serve hot. It tastes great with rice when 'ghee' is also added to the rice. You have to mix it with steamed rice and eat along with another vegetable side-dish. 'Dhal' as such does not have any vegetable. It is easy to cook and is like a rescue item if you don't have time to make any other items like sambar. It is also eaten with roti and chapp