Cholar Dal Begun Diye (Chana dal with eggplant)

Dal, a quite compulsory and essential food in all Indian households. For us Indians, our food is incomplete without a dal. After a weeklong or even sorter vacation, away from home, what do we crave for? Steamed rice and a hot dal with it, nothing else. It,s like heaven.
Here is one of a kind dal recipe which is very delicious as well as healthy..........

P.S. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SUCH CUTE, HEART-SHAPED EGGPLANT?

So, what you need to make this mouth-watering dal................

Ingredients :
Chana Dal : 1 cup
Eggplant : 1/2 of a medium sized eggplant
Dry red chilli : 1
Panch Phoron (five spice mix) : 1 tsp.
Turmeric : 1 tsp.
Tomato : 1 (small)
Green chilli : 1 or 2
Ginger juice : 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Oil : 1-2 tbsp.
Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method :

• Soak chana dal in hot water for 1-2 hours and then pressure cook it. Open the cooker and mash the dal with back of your spatula a little. Don't make it too mushy.
• Cut eggplant in 1" pieces and fry them in oil and keep them aside. Cut tomatoes and green chillies in small pieces.
  
• Now in a pan, heat oil, add dry red chilli and panch phoron and wait for few seconds until it turns light brown and the aroma comes out. Then add green chillies, tomatoes and dal. Mix them altogether and at this point add little water like 3/4 cup of water into it.
  
• Add seasoning and turmeric into it. Now add the eggplant and let it cook for 5 minutes. Before taking it out of the stove, add ginger juice( To make ginger juice, grate ginger finely and squeeze it).
  
• Garnish dal with fresh coriander leaves. Serve hot with roti and fried mix-vegetable or with a salad.

DID YOU KNOW : You should always take a Vitamin C food source(like, cauliflower, cabbage, potato, tomato, eggplant, cucumber, carrot etc. )with a plant food source of Iron(i.e. leafy vegetables, lentils, beans). Otherwise your body can't absorb that iron. But iron from animal meat get absorbed itself.