1 1/2 cups yellow lentils, cleaned,washed and drained (Toor 
dal) 

4 tablespoons oil 
1 teaspoon mustard seeds 
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi) 
1 teaspoon cumin seeds 
15 fresh curry leaves, washed and torn 
3 inches fresh ginger, peeled,washed and finely chopped 
2 teaspoons asafetida powder (commonly called ‘hing’ in Hindi) 
2 medium green chilies, washed and chopped 
2 medium fresh tomatoes, washed,peeled and chopped 
11 1/4 cups water, divided 
2/3 cup tamarind pulp 
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder 
2 teaspoons turmeric powder 

Pressure cook the lentils (toor dal) in a pressure cooker 
alongwith 6 cups of water until the lentils are tender. 
Heat oil in a pot on medium-high flame. 
Once its hot, add mustard seeds, methi seeds and cumin seeds. 
Allow to splutter and crackle. 
Once they stop doing so, add in the curry leaves and ginger. 
Stir-fry for 5 minutes until the raw smell of ginger is gone. 
Add asafoetida powder and continue to stir-fry for another 5-7 
minutes. 
Toss in the green chillies, mix well and continue to stir-fry 
for another 2-3 minutes. 
Then add in the tomatoes and 1/4 cup of water to cook the 
tomatoes. 
Mix well and cook on high flame until the tomatoes are 
softened. 
Add salt, red chilli powder and turmeric powder. 
Mix well. 
Extract tamarind pulp from tamarind to use as tamarind water. 
To do this, soak about 3 inches piece of tamarind in 1 cup of 
hot water. 
Squeeze to extract the tamarind pulp and let it mix with the 
water to form’tamarind water’ (that’s what I call it). 
There is no need to pass this through a strainer- use it 
directly! 
Measure out 2/3 cup of tamarind water in a cup and add this 
tamarind water to the tomato mixture. 
Mix well and allow it to cook on medium-high flame for 5 
minutes. 
In the meantime, open the pressure cooker (by this time the 
lentils will be tender and the whistle would have blown) and 
with the help of a beater/mashing tool (we use what we call 
a’mandira’ in Hindi. This is a long wooden spoon with a round 
base that we use for mashing lentils, bananas, etc), in round 
circular motions, mash the lentils completely, until they mix 
with the water in which they were being cooked. 
Now add 5 cups of water alongwith the lentil and water mixture 
that was used to cook the lentils. Add the tamarind-tomato 
mixture, mixing gracefully, as you sing your favourite kitchen 
song side-by-side! 
Allow this to come to a boil. 
Lower flame and cook for 10 more minutes on a simmer. 
Remove from flame and serve immediately with cooked long-grain 
white Basmati rice. 
Serve hot (we serve it immediately because it doesn’t taste 
very good once it gets cold) alongwith low-fat plain yogurt on 
the side for a complete wonderful Asian-Indian meal in rice and 
lentil curry heaven! 
My brother, Manav, says that my wud-be hubby is a lucky man cos 
I’ll cook this for him and oh my, my bro adores this curry! 
Please note: If you have a sore throat, a running nose, fever, 
cough and cold, then PLEASE omit the tamarind altogether 
because using tamarind juice in this recipe when you have a bad 
throat, will only make your throat worse. This curry cooks 
awesome even without the tamarind juice. Enjoy!