Moong Dal with Mushrooms & Spinach (Green Gram Lentils)

Doc and I are at the point in our lives where it seems like every week brings a new happy announcement from friends.  Babies, marriages, vacations, new houses, graduations, engagements, promotions.  It's been a giddy time.  

Last week one of my college buddies posted about some aversions she was having during her pregnancy, in particular how she was struggling with meats and dairy.  I offered up some of the dal/bean recipes I've posted.  As I went through them I realized that I had a few more I wanted to add, including this one for mung/moong dal (also called green gram).  So her happy news is good for all of us because it means a new post.

(I won't Piro-rant you with excuses about infrequent posts this spring.  The long and short of it is that I've been enjoying salads and fresh veggies more often than not.  I feel silly posting salad recipes and I don't delude myself that anyone is anxious for the next installment, so I've been waiting for recipes that I felt were worth sharing.)

Moong Dal with Mushrooms & Spinach

Total Time:  2 hours soaking (can be done while at work / overnight) + apx. 1 hour cooking the beans and ~30 minutes making the flavorings.  The process can be sped up by cooking the beans and flavorings at the same time or using a pressure cooker for the beans. 

Weirdest Spice:  Fenugreek leaves.  Can be substituted (fenugreek powder, celery seeds, celery salt, lemon leaves) or omitted.  

Credits:  I can't say I have a base or inspiration recipe for this one.  It bears a resemblance to my basic tadka dal, if that counts.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup green gram (moong / mung dal)
• 3 cups boiling water
• 1 tsp oil or ghee
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 onion, sliced thinly
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• 1 tsp garlic paste
• 0.5 cup sliced mushrooms
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1.5 tsp chili powder or paprika (optional, adjust to taste)
• 2 cups pureed tomato
• 2 tsp fenugreek leaves
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp fresh cilantro (optional)
• 1 tablespoon cream or coconut milk (optional, adjust to taste)
• salt to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse lentils thoroughly in a fine-mesh sieve under warm water until the water runs clear.
2. Pour the boiling water over the lentils in a heat-proof bowl.  Set aside to soak for 2 hours or overnight.
3. Transfer the lentils and water to a large nonstick saucepan and heat on the stove on medium-high.  When the water boils, turn the heat down to low and simmer approximately 1 hour or until lentils are soft.  Stir occasionally, adding more water if needed in order to keep the lentils covered with a small amount of water (see pictures below for an example).
4. While the lentils are booking, heat a second saucepan on medium heat.  When the pan is hot, add the oil.  When oil is shimmering, add the cumin seeds.  Allow to cook for 10-30 seconds or until fragrant.
5. Add diced onions and a dash of salt.  Saute 5-10 minutes or until translucent.
6. Add ginger & garlic pastes, saute 2 minutes.
7. Add the mushrooms, saute 5 minutes.
8. Add coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric, and chili powder.  Cook 1-2 minutes or until fragrant, stirring constantly.  Add a small splash of water if needed to keep spices from burning.
9. Add tomato puree and stir until onion paste and tomato puree are well-mixed.  Turn heat down to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until tomato darkens and loses its raw flavor.
10. Add fenugreek leaves, garam masala, and spinach.  For maximum flavor, use palms to crush the fenugreek leaves before adding.  Cook 5-10 minutes or until spinach is wilted and flavors are incorporated. 
11. When both the lentils and the tomato sauce are cooked, stir them together over low heat.  Salt to taste.
12. Optional:  add cilantro and cream or coconut milk.
13. Serve hot over rice or with flatbread.

What I like best about this lentil recipe is that it's as decadent or as simple as you want to make it.  The difference is the addition of cream or coconut milk at the end.  No cream makes it almost rustic, whereas adding it in makes it restaurant-style in richness.  Or you can shoot for somewhere in the middle, as I usually do.

The first step is to wash and soak your beans.  You can quick-soak in 2 hours by using boiling water, or do it overnight / while you're at work.  

Use 3:1 water to lentils to ensure that they're well-covered and have room to expand.  When you're done soaking you can either use the soaking water or rinse them again and use vegetable stock to cook them instead.  Up to you.

Place the lentils and the cooking water in a large saucepan and dial it up to medium-high.  Ignore the urge to add salt here as that will only increase the cooking time.  

It should take about an hour for the lentils to get soft and for most of the liquid to cook off.  Stir every 5-10 minutes.  Keep an eye so that the lentils don't get dry.  At the end you want a little water/stock in with them but not a huge amount.  Like so:

See how they're soupy but not drowning?  That's the goal at the end.  Add in more liquid as needed if they get much drier than that as they're cooking.  Depending on how dry/old your lentils are it might take more or less than an hour.  It's hard to predict because every bag of lentils is different.  For me it took about an hour and fifteen.

While the lentils are simmering, get the flavoring put together.  

It starts with a second saucepan on medium heat.  When the pan is hot, add the oil, and when the oil is hot, add your cumin seeds.  Ghee is also an okay choice if you're not going for a vegan dish.

The cumin seeds only need about 10-30 seconds in the oil before you'll smell them.  Immediately add in your sliced onions and stir so that the cumin seeds don't burn.

After about 5-10 minutes you'll find the onions have softened up and gotten a bit translucent.  That's the time to add the ginger and garlic pastes.  For some reason, I missed getting a picture of that.  Sorry guys.

Cook the ginger and garlic, stirring occasionally, for about 2-3 minutes.  Then add in the mushroom slices.

About 5 minutes is what it should take for the mushrooms to soften up.  When they are soft add in the spices.  Also toss in a splash of water or stock if the mixture is looking dry in order to keep the spices from burning.

Stir the mushroom-onion-spice mix about 1-2 minutes to cook the spices.

Next up is the tomato puree.  You could use canned or fresh, whatever makes you happiest.

Stir the onion mix and the tomatoes together until they're well incorporated.

Turn the heat down to low to keep the tomatoes from scorching.  Stir from time to time as well.

It'll take about 20 minutes or so for the tomatoes to cook through and lose their raw taste.  They'll also darken up a bit, as you can see here:

The spices in the above photo are fenugreek leaves and garam masala.  Fenugreek leaves get a big boost in flavor from crushing them between your palms just as you add them in.  If you don't have any, go ahead leave them out.  You could potentially replace it with makrut leaves or celery salt for a similar flavor, but it's not necessary.

This is also when you'll want to add in the spinach, which until it wilts will probably seem like an absurd amount.

It'll take about 5-10 minutes for the spinach to wilt and mix into the tomato sauce.  After that it's time to pour the tomato sauce into the cooked lentils.

Stir it well so that the tomato sauce is completely incorporated into the lentils.  Add salt to taste.

If you're a fan of cilantro you can add in a little at this point.

And if you want a richer, creamier flavor you can add in either heavy cream or coconut milk (according to your tastes).  I only go with a small splash.  Start small, is my recommendation, and taste as you go if you think you want a lot of cream.

Stir it all up and you're good to go!


I have a preference for rice rather than rotis, but mung dal go equally well with either.

I served them up with some fresh cucumbers for crunch and some masala eggplant for kick.

Dal Makhani (Creamy Lentils)

It's hard to believe how fast time passes.  It was just over three years ago, around Valentine's Day, that Doc and I got engaged.  We'd been kicking around the idea almost as long as we'd been dating (about four years at that point) and had finally decided to throw in the towel and settle down.  Our lives and differences in culture being what they were, this was an adventure for both of us -- not just in the idea of merging our very different views or lifestyles, but in telling our relatives.  I don't think anyone was shocked, exactly: we'd been living together for a few years and weren't springing anything on them suddenly, but it was still nerve-wracking for both of us since it was very much a first for both families.

We kept the secret to ourselves for about a month, until Doc's family came down for a visit over spring break: just a small party of his parents, grandfather, and four aunts & uncles on an eight hour road trip.  We had a sense that they'd be arriving around noon on Saturday, but then again maybe not.  They were going to eat lunch with us, or then again maybe on the road.  No, definitely on the road.  On second thought, though, they were only an hour away at this point so they'd drive straight through and have lunch with us after all.

Luckily, I anticipated that they might show up hungry (or at the very least that I should have something on the stove when the entourage arrived), so I put on some dal makhani, or creamy lentils.  It was one of the few Indian dishes I felt halfway confident about at the time, so I hoped it just might help seal the deal.

I think in the end everything turned out okay.  Nobody died of food poisoning or a broken heart that week, and that's pretty much the best outcome we could've hoped for with seven houseguests.

Concise recipe at the bottom, as always.

Dal Makhani (Creamy Lentils)

Total Time:  Around 1.5 - 2 hours, most of which is simmer time.  This is unfortunately a dish that takes some time to do, so think of it like a good chili: a day project that you can make in big batches to freeze later (or bring to a party).
Credits:  When I was first learning this recipe I relied heavily on Sanjay Thumma's Dal Bukhara video, though at the time I didn't realize there were measurements in the doobly doo and so found myself quite frustrated over instructions like "a little bit of turmeric" or "extra chili powder," because I had no sense of scale.  After half a dozen tries I ended up with a process that mirrored his but a set of measurements that were more or less guesswork.  It was only after I'd gotten my own groove that I discovered the intended measurements in the original recipe, so please feel free to use those instead.  I can't pretend to compare with a trained chef here.
Weirdest Spice:  Fenugreek leaves.  Unlike a lot of recipes, I'd say that for this one the fenugreek leaves really make the dish.  They're very aromatic and earthy, and until I add them the dish just doesn't smell right.  That said, I'd say if you're making this for the first time and are unsure if you want to spring for a weird spice just for one recipe, go ahead and make it without.  You'll also find some other recipes here (turkey curry, khichuri, egg curry) that use fenugreek, too, in case that helps you use it up once you've got some.

Traditionally this recipe is made with red kidney beans and black gram lentils ("urad dal"), though as often as not I just use the black turtle beans (frijoles negros) that are more commonly available in local supermarkets.  You've got two options here:  used canned or boil up some dried beans.  The dried option is cheaper and has less in the way of added salt/preservatives, but honestly this dish already takes quite a while to make so no judgment here if you decide to go with canned.  One can of each should do the trick, or else you can do what I did and use 1 cup each of black beans and kidney beans:

If going the dried beans route you'll want to either soak them overnight or quick soak them.  How long they take to cook through will depend on the age of the beans -- generally I plan on 1-2 hours for this part.  If you're using a pressure cooker then go with whatever setting you use for kidney beans.  Either way, you'll want to cook them until they squish between two fingers but not to the point they're completely mushy:

And then set them aside.  Save some of the liquid if you'd like (see below for discussion of re-using bean liquid).

In a separate pan you'll want to do the medium-high heat + 0.5 tsp oil + 1 tsp cumin seed routine that I'm sure you're a pro at by now:

Give the cumin seeds 10-30 seconds to sizzle, then add 2 tsp each of ginger paste and garlic paste:

Stir that about for around 2-3 minutes or until fragrant.  Then add 0.5 tsp turmeric:

And stir that all around for another minute or two to "cook" the turmeric.  Next up is around 3 cups of tomato puree (use canned if you prefer), and turn the heat down to medium-low.

Let this cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.  It takes that long for the tomatoes and turmeric to lose their raw flavor and begin to turn into a tomato sauce.  Just be sure the heat isn't too high because you don't want your tomatoes to scorch.

After that, go ahead and add:  1 tsp red chili powder (or to taste), 0.5 tsp paprika, and 1 tablespoon coriander (yes, that much):

Stir that up and let it simmer for another 10 minutes on medium-low, stirring now and then to prevent burning.

This next part is where the "makhani" part of the recipe comes from, makhani meaning "butter" (cf. murgh makhani, butter chicken).  If making this recipe vegan I think you can honestly skip the butter altogether.  The purpose of the butter is to add richness to the sauce.  In the original recipe he uses about a quarter cup of butter, which makes for a very rich but also very calorie-dense sauce.  I usually skimp and max out at around 2 tablespoons of butter:

You can see how the cooked tomatoes changed color there, too.

Stir the butter around until melted.  Next up is 1 cup of liquid.  The original recipe calls for using liquid left over from cooking your dried beans.  (Note: please don't use the liquid that comes with canned beans, because ew.)  I did that at first, too.  The bean liquid brings a smoothness and density to the sauce that's hard to achieve otherwise.  At the same time, I find that cooking black beans means that the water turns black and I just can't shake the feeling that it's also maybe full of what specks of dirt I couldn't quite rinse off the beans, even though I'm pretty obsessed with rinsing them very, very thoroughly.  I think you'll be 100% a-ok if you use the bean water.  But if you're using canned beans or if the dried bean water creeps you out, then you might do what I do, i.e. use 1 cup of vegetable stock instead:

You can see there that I'm using some veggie stock that I'd frozen a while back.  Water would also do in a pinch here if you don't have stock on hand.

Dial up the heat back to medium-high and let that stock cook in for about 5 minutes or until it achieves a slow, gentle boil.  (Don't forget to stir every few minutes.)

Then, at long last, it's time to add in the beans:

Along with 2 tsp fenugreek leaves and 1 tsp garam masala:

Stir that up, dial the heat back down to low, cover it, and let it simmer for at least half an hour, stirring occasionally.  You can let this cook on a low simmer for longer, if you'd like.  As with chili, the longer it slow-cooks the deeper the flavors will be so don't be shy if you want to pop this dish on the stove in the early afternoon and let it do its thang for an hour or two.

The very last step, just before you serve, is to drop in 0.25 cup of cream and garnish with an optional dash of fresh cilantro.

Salt to taste and you're done!

I've never subbed in nondairy milk (e.g. soy, coconut, almond), but I think if you wanted to experiment that probably would be a nice way to keep the creaminess of the dish without jacking up the calories.

At any rate, this dish freezes exceptionally well (as do most bean dishes) and is a nice way to get some vegetarian protein.  Personally I love it atop rice and alongside a simple salad.

Dal Makhani

Ingredients:

• 1 cup each of red kidney beans and black beans (either urad dal or black turtle beans), soaked over night, rinsed, and cooked until just mushy enough to crush easily between two fingers
• can sub 1 can of each, if preferred
• optional: reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid [dried beans only, not the liquid from canned beans] to use in place of vegetable stock, below
• 0.5 tsp oil or ghee (clarified butter)
• 2 tsp ginger paste
• 2 tsp garlic paste
• 0.5 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 cups tomato puree (fresh or canned)
• 1 tsp red chili powder (optional, adjust to taste)
• 0.5 tsp paprika
• 1 tablespoon coriander powder
• 2 tablespoons butter (optional, adjust to taste)
• 2 tsp fenugreek leaves
• tip: crush these between palms before adding to release extra flavor
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 0.25 cup cream
• scant handful fresh cilantro (optional garnish)
• salt to taste

Directions:

1. Heat a large pan on medium-high until warm.  Add oil.  When shimmering, add cumin seeds.  Allow to cook 10-30 seconds or until sizzling.
2. Add ginger & garlic pastes, saute 2-3 minutes or until fragrant.
3. Add turmeric, saute another 2 minutes.
4. Add tomato puree and turn heat down to medium-low.  Cook on low, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.
5. Add butter, stir in until fully melted.
6. Add vegetable stock (or bean liquid, if using).  Return heat to medium-high and cook until just barely beginning to gently boil, stirring occasionally (around 5 minutes).
7. Add cooked beans, fenugreek leaves, and garam masala.  Stir to mix, then turn heat down to low.  Cover and let simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Before serving, remove pan from heat and add cream, cilantro, and salt.

Indian Brunch Part 2: Parsi Eggs (Akoori)

Hi there!

You'll find Part One here, in case you missed it.  Since I did a fairly long intro there I'll err on the side of brevity here and just give a little background before launching into the recipe.

Akoori, also called Parsi eggs, are a kind of spicy scrambled egg with middle-eastern-slash-south-asian influences.  What, you might ask, does that mean?  Well, to be quite honest it means that there's any spice at all -- at least compared to how I grew up on them, where black pepper and parsley were about the height of egg adventurousness.  If you've had a southwest scramble before these are in the same vein: veggies, egg, and a little kick.  I made them a two weeks ago alongside upma (savory cream of wheat) and a modified raita where I swapped out the cilantro and veggies for lemon zest, mango, and blueberries.

Skim to the bottom for a condensed recipe.

Parsi Eggs

Total time:  10 minutes to prep, 15-20 to cook.

We're going to start this adventure like we do so many other recipes here:  add 1 tsp cumin seeds to 0.5 tsp oil that's been heated on medium-high heat.  Wait until the seeds sizzle (about 10-30 seconds):

Now, what veggies you use is totally up to you.  I went for a fusion touch because I like mushrooms in my eggs.  If you want to skip any of these veggie choices or sub in your own (eggplant, kale, spinach, chard, peas, zucchini, whatever, etc.), then please do that.  If mushrooms are your thing, cook those first:

Give them about 5 minutes and plenty of space ("don't crowd the mushrooms," as Madame Julia used to say).  Then add minced onions:

Give those about 3-5 minutes to soften up, then about 0.5 tsp each of ginger and garlic (minced or paste):

And, after letting that cook for 2-3 minutes, add in any other squishy veggies you like.  I added a tomato and some bell pepper:

I let those continue to cook on LOW heat (as in, turn it down at this point) while I mix up my eggs and that seems to be enough time (about 2-3 more minutes) to bring the whole shebang together.  If you'd like, go ahead and add 0.5 tsp cumin powder and/or 1 tsp fresh minced cilantro the stir-fry.

As for the eggs, I used 2 eggs, a dash of milk, 0.5 tsp turmeric, and 1 tsp chili powder (please adjust to your own taste):

When the eggs were all whisked I poured them in the pan over my veggie stir-fry:

And then just let them cook for a few minutes until the eggs started to firm up.  This part works just like regular scrambled eggs, so I didn't bother to take extra pictures of that process.  Once the eggs start to firm up just push them about gently until there's no more runny bits, and you're done!

They're more traditionally served with toast or flatbread, not unlike the scrambled eggs you're probably used to.  I always feel so accomplished starting off my day knowing I've already gotten one serving of veggies in.

Ingredients:

• 0.5 tsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• Apx. 1/4 cup each vegetables of your choice.  Some suggestions to get you started are:
• mushrooms
• onions
• tomatoes
• bell peppers
• chili peppers / jalepenos
• green peas
• zucchini, squash, or eggplant
• dark leafy greens such as spinach, kale, or chard
• 0.5 tsp minced ginger or ginger paste
• 0.5 tsp minced garlic or garlic paste
• 0.5 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp minced cilantro (fresh coriander)
• 2 eggs, whisked with an optional dash of milk
• NOTE:  the milk isn't vital, but adding a tiny splash to eggs when making an omelet or scrambled eggs helps it to puff up and helps to stretch your eggs a little further.  That said, it should be known that this is kind of a ghetto kludge and is frowned upon by Real Foodies.
• 0.5 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chili powder (optional, adjust to taste)
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. On medium-high heat, cook the cumin seeds in hot oil until they sizzle (about 10-30 seconds).
2. Add any vegetables that take longer to cook, such as mushrooms or onions.  Allow 3-5 minutes each for these to cook until soft. 
3. Add ginger and garlic, saute with veggies 1-2 minutes or until fragrant.
4.  Add soft veggies such as tomatoes, leafy greens, or peppers and turn the heat down to low.  
5. Add cumin and cilantro, stir occasionally on low heat for 2-3 minutes while whisking eggs.
6. In a mixing bowl whisk together eggs, milk, turmeric, and chili powder.  
7. Pour egg mixture over stir-fry and allow to cook until the eggs are just beginning to set.
8. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, gently push the eggs around the pan once, breaking them into smaller pieces.  Continue to stir occasionally until eggs are cooked through.   (Note: be sure the pan is on low heat before starting this step.)
9. Serve hot with toast or flatbread.

Indian Brunch Part 1: Upma (Cream of Wheat with Stir-Fried Vegetables)

India is a stupendously diverse place, you guys.

Every time I refer to something as "Indian" I get a little ping of guilt.  Not only is the country itself huge, it's chockabock full of hundreds of different subcultures that vary by caste, ethnic group, religion, region, and of course the normal variation that occurs just from family to family.  To help confuse things more, when I say "Indian" I often mean "South Asian, generally," or "countries in the Indian sub-continent," because several countries in South Asia have a number of similarities across culture and cuisine and it's difficult to hone in on what precisely I mean without the wording getting awkward.  It's kind of like how people refer to America when a number of things that are true for the U.S. are also true for Canada, but maybe not the case across the entire North American continent.  Or the difficulty that some of us experience when trying to refer to places in and around the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.  These things get tricky.

So when I say this is an "Indian" brunch, I'm using that as a shorthand to refer to a couple dishes I put together this past weekend using savory, produce-filled breakfast-type foods that are sometimes served in parts of South Asia, though I've added some fusion elements to bring it more in line with my own tastes.  As if all that weren't confusing enough, part of the brunch was a dish called akoori, or Parsi eggs, which have a middle-eastern influence.

Although I made the upma and the akoori together for a single Sunday brunch, there is nothing in the world stopping you from making them separately.  To my knowledge they're not commonly eaten together.  I like the idea that both are similar to western breakfast foods and the carbs in the cream of wheat complement the protein in the eggs, resulting in a more balanced meal than either provided on their own.

Do what makes you happiest, I say.  And as always scroll to the bottom if you want the condensed recipe.

Upma (Savory Cream of Wheat with Stir-Fried Veggies)

Total Time:  About 20-30 minutes, depending on how fast you chop.
Weirdest Ingredient:  curry leaves
Credits:  Believe it or not, I first spotted a version of this recipe in a Betty Crocker cookbook that Doc got me the week I moved in with him.  From there I adapted it using influences from Veg Recipes of India, Vegan Richa, and Indiaphile.  Making upma is like making oatmeal: you can personalize it pretty much any way you want, so please feel free to get creative with the ingredients.

Because this all comes together so fast I suggest gathering all the ingredients first and then cooking.  Normally I tend to dig things out as I go, but for this I line it all up ahead of time.  Which, as you probably know, is how "real" cooks do it.  I never seem to have the patience to think that far ahead unless there's a reason I need to move quickly.

First, let's talk terminology.  Semolina is a wheat by-product made from soft (durum) wheat and is coarser than flour.  When boiled with water, it makes a porridge that -- depending on your location -- is called either cream of wheat or farina.  In the west we tend to eat it like oatmeal: typically as a hot breakfast cereal with sweet additives like cinnamon, honey, or fruit.  Raw semolina is also a popular way to dust pizza stones (along with cornmeal) to give that grainy, slightly nutty quality to the crust.  In India (see above re: shorthand) one of the many uses of semolina (aka sooji / suji) is to boil it up, similar to cream of wheat, but with savory elements like vegetables and spices.  I've also seen versions of upma made with vermicelli noodles and quinoa, so I'd like to think that this recipe is pretty forgiving of substitutions.  The quinoa in particular appeals to me since that'd be a wonderful way to swap in some extra protein if that's of interest to you.

Completely unnecessary trivia:  Like cream of wheat and grits in the U.S., upma is more of a "southern" dish -- in this case referring to the south part of India and into (so I've read) Sri Lanka.  For northerners like me (and north Indians like Doc), it's a less common food where we're respectively from.  In fact, until I started researching this post I wasn't 100% certain of the difference between cream of wheat (made from -- get this! -- ground wheat) compared to grits (made from ground hominy, or white corn treated with lime).

Isn't learning fun?

So anyway, to get started the first thing is to "roast" the semolina grains.  Not a strictly necessary step if you're in a hurry.  On medium-low heat, I use a skillet to heat 3/4 cup of semolina (more than plenty for two adults) for about 3-4 minutes, stirring them about every 20-30 seconds or so:

What you're looking for is a color shift from pale white to more of a very, very light golden.  Thing is, it was very cloudy and my camera battery was running low, so I wasn't really able to capture that color shift in a photo.  This is the after shot, which is ostensibly the same color as the one above.  I guess the advantage there is that it shows we're not looking for a dramatic browning of the grains here -- just enough to give them a lightly toasted flavor is plenty:

Take the pan off the heat and scrape the grains into a separate bowl to cool.  I then use a damp paper towel to wipe down the skillet to remove any semolina dust and then re-use the same one for the next step, which is to heat 1 tsp of oil (ghee is a popular choice, I myself prefer olive oil) and 1.5 tsp of mustard seeds:

You'd think I'd just start recycling these oil + seeds photos from all the other Indian recipes I've posted, and yet I can't seem to shake the impulse to take a fresh photo each time.

Anyway, about 10-30 seconds is plenty of time for the mustard seeds to start to sizzle, at which point you'll want to add 1 tablespoon of dal (small lentils, I used masoor dal since they cook fast) and 2 tablespoons of unsalted broken cashew pieces:

Because the dal are so small they can actually cook about as well in oil ("dal fry") as they do in water.  Give 'em about 2 minutes of stir-frying -- as in, you keep stirring continuously as they fry -- before adding in 2 tsp of curry leaves (okay to omit if you don't have them):

Stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.  Next up are 1/3 cup of minced onion (any kind is okay, doesn't have to be a red onion like in the picture) and 1 tsp of ginger paste:

Stir-fry this for another 3-5 minutes to soften up the onion, then add in Veggies of Your Choice.  Tomatoes, green chillies, and peppers are popular.  I swapped the chilies for spinach.  There's about a quarter cup of each vegetable here.  I encourage you to add more or swap things out according to your tastes.

Another 3ish minutes should be enough to soften up the veggies, at which time you can add an optional teaspoon of red chili powder for kick, if you'd like:

Last is 1/3 cup of green peas.

You don't have to stir-fry these if you're using frozen since they'll heat up enough in the next step.  Overcooked peas get mushy so unless you're using raw I'd immediately push everything to the edges:

And then add in 1.5 cups of either vegetable stock or water and the roasted semolina you made a few minutes ago.  The rule is 2x as much liquid as you've got semolina, in case you want to adjust the amounts.

At this point I reduce the heat to low and just stir it every 1-2 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed.  As you might guess, the semolina expands quite a bit when it's cooked.  As long as the dish is hot and all the liquid is absorbed (add more if you want to water it down some), you're done:

If you've got other things going on the stove then feel free to let this sit on low heat.  Give it an occasional stir to prevent burning or sticking.

I added in fruit raita (swap in fruit of choice, such as berries, pomegranate seeds, mango slices, apple, banana, etc. for the veggies in this recipe) along with akoori (Parsi eggs) to round out the meal.

Upma (Savory Cream of Wheat)

Serves 2-3 adults

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of semolina (also called sooji/suji or farina/cream of wheat)
• It's okay to use 2 packets of plain cream of wheat / farina from the cereal aisle since it's just a pre-measured serving of semolina.
• 1 tsp oil or ghee (clarified butter)
• 1.5 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 TBS dal/lentils (such as masoor dal or urad dal, ok to mix multiple kinds)
• 2 TBS unsalted cashew pieces
• 2 tsp curry leaves (okay to omit)
• 1/3 cup minced onion
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• Apx. two cups of thinly-sliced vegetables of your choice (e.g. bell pepper, chili pepper, spinach, mushroom, tomato, kale, zucchini, cooked potato cubes, shredded carrot, etc.)
• 1 tsp red chili powder or paprika (optional)
• 1/3 cup frozen green peas
• 1.5 cups vegetable stock or water
• 2 tsp minced cilantro (fresh coriander) for optional garnish
• salt & black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a large skillet on medium heat, roast the semolina grains 3-4 minutes or until very lightly toasted.  Remove from skillet and set aside in a separate bowl.  Wipe down the skillet with a damp paper towel and return to stove.
2. Roast mustard seeds in hot oil for 10-30 seconds or until they start to sizzle.
3. Add lentils and cashew pieces, stir-fry 2 minutes or until lentils just begin to brown slightly.
4. Add curry leaves and stir-fry another 1-2 minutes.
5. Add onion & ginger paste, stir-fry 3-5 minutes or until onions soften.
6. Add vegetables, stir-fry 3-5 minutes or until soft.
7. Add chili powder, stir-fry 1 minute.
8. Add green peas and immediately push all vegetables to the edge of the pan to create a hole in the center.
9. Into the cleared space add first the liquid (stock or water) followed by the semolina.
10. Stir the mixture every 1 minute or so for about 5 minutes or until semolina has absorbed all the water and heated through.  Turn down heat to low.
11. If desired, add additional liquid to thin out the mixture.  
12. Add cilantro if desired, along with salt and pepper to taste.
13. Can be served either hot or cold.