Ingredients:
One large onion, chopped into big pieces.
Other vegetables, like carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, chayote, cubed (vegetables that must NOT be used are those that belong to the cabbage and caulflower families.)
some curry leaves (if available, don't worry about it otherwise)
coriander leaves chopped 1T (cilantro)
Juice of tamarind size of perhaps half a lime
Cooked thur dal, approx 1/2-3/4 cup uncooked measure.
Note: This is a hard-to-cook dal, so use a presssure cooker if available.
salt to taste
3/4t turmeric powder

For reaction with oil:

1. mustard seeds 3/4t
2. fenugreek seeds (optional) 1/2t
3. oil 1T

Fry:

1. 2T coriander seeds
2. some asafoetida (hing) 1/8t
3. 2T channa dal
4. 10-15 whole red chilis, to taste (use lesser amounts if required
and grind with 3-6T coconut, use shredded dried if too lazy to deal
with fresh. The quantity of coconut varies according to taste.

Method:

Fry the onion for about 5 minutes in a little oil with the turmeric powder. Add the vegetables and some water and cook. I would add hard to cook veggies like carrot and chatyote first and cook for a while before adding sweet potatoes and pumpkin. (Can make this also with a single vegetable, no need to use all of them.) Don't overcook veggies, but when just cooked, add the tamarind juice, curry leaves and salt to taste,

Soon after adding the tamarind juice, take a separate frying pan and heat up the 1T oil. When hot enough so that the mustard seeds will crackle when thrown in, put the mustard seeds in, once the crackling has stopped add the fenugreek seeds and stir until they turn a dark brown color (don't burn). Then add this the boiling mixture.

Boil all together for another 5 minutes until the raw tamarind smell has left the solution.

Now add the paste of masala and coconut and add the dal. Bring to a boil and switch off. Add chopped coriander leaves. Takes 2-3 hours for the flavour to settle down, but can be eaten right away also.

Note: while frying ingradients for the paste, throw in the coriander
seeds first and fry awhile before putting in the others, otherwise the
coriander seeds won't fry properly and will tastepretty awful.