Indian Lentil Soup - Masoor Amti-Usal

Story: :) I have been sitting on this post since October and it's my friend Vishy's fault!! here's why

My close friends and family are the Quality Assurance team for this blog... Vishy is a very active and vocal member of the QA team. I had made this Masoor Amti and Bharali wangi (stuffed eggplant) for dinner. Everyone (Vish, Smita, Shashank) went gaga over the stuffed eggplant (coming 'soon' on the blog). And that completely overshadowed this simple, soulful masoor preparation. To make it worse, I said I am going to post the masoor recipe. They went crazy - "Bharli Wangi should go first. This Amti is good - but the stuffed eggplants are just phenomneble.." yes. phenomneble is officially a word in our group of friends."

I din't have pictures ready of the stuffed eggplant to write a post (now I do).. and that's my excuse for sitting on this post for so long.

Thanks to Sonal Gopujkar who asked me - "really Anuja?? - the last post was in August 2014?" [shame on you] ;0) Thanks for the motivation Sonal :) here's a new post..

Source: AshaCool kitchen
Time: 30 mins (Prepare day before)
Ingredients: for serving 4

• 1.5 cup lentil/whole masoor soaked overnight
• 1 small Onion finely cut
• 2 roma tomatoes finely cut
• 1 green chili or 1/4 Jalapeno - cut in big pieces
• 1 inch ginger ground or grated
• 1 clove of garlic ground or grated
• 1/2 tsp Kala masala (Can substitute with Garam masala or Curry Powder)\
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 3-4 curry leaves 
• 2 dried kokum/Aamsula (substitute with 1 tbsp lemon juice)

Recipe: Heat the oil in a pot for about 30 secs and add mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds start to crackle, add curry leaves and turmeric powder to make tadka. Then add the green chili, ginger, garlic and onions. Saute the onions for 1-2 minutes till they soften. Then add tomatoes to the mixture and saute for a minute.

Drain water from the lentil and add them in the pot. Mix well and add 1 cup of warm water. Cover the pot and let the soup/daal simmer for 5-10 minutes on low-medium heat. Check if the lentil is completely cooked, add salt to taste. Serve as a side or the way I like it - in a happy meal of Poli-Bhaji-Amti!