This hearty dal goes well with almost any bhaja or torkari. Because it is sparsely spiced, it doesn’t overpower other dishes. Rather, it steps back and lets its partners-in-course shine.

While it might be the nutty aroma of dry-roasted moong dal that often transports you back to your childhood home, this plain mosur dal, uplifted with the flavour of chopped coriander leaves at the end, is what you want to cook at the end of a weekend of revelry and binge-eating. On those distraught Sunday evenings when you cannot bring yourself to face the hard truth of going back to work the next morning, spend 20 minutes making this simple mosur dal. As the dal is boiling, start cooking some rice. While you are at it, throw in a small potato (halved) into the pot of rice. At the end of those 20 minutes you will have steamed rice, dal, and alu sheddho. Make yourself a hot omelette, if you care. Squeeze a dash of lime on your dal. You now have a meal so comforting, it will have numbed all your pain.