Heart-warming lentil curry (A south-indian relish sambar)

Sanbar is a south-Indian lentil curry made up of yellow lentils and combination of vegetables. You can make a sambar with drumstick, eggplant, okra, squash, carrot, radish, even bitter melon or a sambar with a combination of all veggies.
There were days when my mom keeps a delicious sambar ready at home for her hungry kids coming back from school. No matter what you offer, - either a cheesy pizza or spicy chicken curry - if I had a choice to select sambar, I will go for it. I know there are people who agree with me in this aspect one hundred percent. My mom's sambar is so unique to me that I never tasted anything like her preparation-a combination of whole shallots, country vegetables, toor/moong dal with tangy tomatoes- that I long for always.

Ingredients:

Toor Dal - 1/2 cup
Moong Dal - 1/4 cup
Red Onion - 1 (small) / shallots - 10
Tomato - 2 (Large)
Drumstick - 10 pieces
Egg plant - 2
Squash - 1/2
Green Chilli - 1
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Sambar Powder - 2 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Curry Leaves - 5
Coriander Leaves - 1 tbsp
Asafoetida - 1/8 tsp
Salt
Oil

Preparation:

Sambar Vegetables

Rinse dals and pressure cook the dals along with asafoetida for 5 to 6 whistles. Meanwhile , cut the shallots into halves and dice the tomatoes. Cube the squash and eggplant into bite sized pieces. Add a tsp of oil to wok. Saute onion and g.chilli once the oil is hot followed by veggies, tomatoes and powders. Wait until tomatoes are mashed up and then add water for the veggies to cook. Let the veggies cook for around 20 minutes and then add the mashed pressure-cooked dal in the wok. Let the flame in medium for 5 more minutes and adjust the salt.
Now, do the seasoning in a separate pan with oil, mustard, cumin and curry leaves. Pour the seasoning on curry and add chopped coriander leaves. Serve the curry with rice/idli/dosa/roti.

Lentil Curry (Sambar)