Vegetables cooked with chana dal in a roasted onion and spice gravy

I have been a great advocate of one pot meals. They are wholesome, often quick to make and can feed an army. While this dish is vegetarian you can always satisfy you meat craving by adding chicken along with the vegetables.

A few tips

1. This is an onion based gravy with roasted spices. It has no coconut in it.

2. Soak the chana dal or Bengal gram for at least two hours if not overnight.

3. Use hardy vegetables to accompany the robust flavour of the gravy

4. I used a combination of carrot, white pumpkin and ivy gourd or tendli. Another great combination is cauliflower, peat and potato or French bean, carrot and corn

5. Avoid using vegetables which have a strong overpowering flavour, you want this gravy to show off a bit

6. This dish requires your patience and is not one of those flashes in the pan and ready to eat

7. The ingredients in this dish can feed at least eight people.

8. Dice all your vegetables the same size and they will cook evenly. For this dish I cut the vegetables the size of my thumb nail. You want to be able to eat this comfortably and not stretch your mouth when eating.