Chana Dal with Lauki

This is my husband's favorite. His mom always makes it with tomato instead of lauki/bottlegourd. My mom made it with lauki and I like both styles. But I have been cooking it with lauki lately because as all of us know "Lauki is healthy" and the fact that my daughters eat less vegetables as is. In this form lauki is invisible - totally mashed and hidden in the dal. My daughters never see it and love the dal. This goes well with Rice - can be eaten with Roti too :)

Preparation Time: 5 min
Waiting Time: 30 min
Cooking Time: 10 min
Serves: 5-6

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Ingredients: 1 cup Chana Dal 1/2 Lauki / Bottle Gourd,chopped into 1 inch pieces 1 medium Onion, ground to a paste 1/2 tsp Turmeric Salt to taste 1 tsp Jeera / Cumin Seeds 1 tsp Garam Masala 1 tblsp oil / Ghee

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Method:

1. Boil Chana Dal, Lauki, turmeric and salt with 3-4 cups water till soft. First put chana dal and water and then add lauki so that you can skim lauki pieces later on. If using a presure cooker, it takes about 20-25 min on slow heat.
2. Heat oil/ghee in a pan, add jeera and let it crackle. Add Onion paste and fry for 4-5 min.
3. Skim the lauki pieces out from the dal and add them to the pan. Mash properly.
4. Add dal and garam masala. Adjust consistency by adding water if you want to thin the dal. Boil for 3-4 min.
5. Serve with Rice / Roti.

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Tips You can use tomato puree instead of lauki. I like the taste of lauki in Chana Dal.

I had to really put on my thinking cap when I read Kids Lunches event hosted by Srivalli and created by Meeta as a regular Monthly Mingle.

Most of the time for my day-to-day cooking, I don't think "What to cook for kids today?" I just cook what I would normally and hope that the kids would eat. I make slight modifications to suit my daughters taste buds and my aim to feed veggies to them.

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