Asparagus Paruppu Usili (Asparagus with Crumbled Lentils)

Paruppu usili is a side dish popular in Tamil Nadu where lentils (toor dal and chana dal) and vegetables are served together. Dal is soaked and then ground coarsely with spices. It is then made into round balls and cooked by steaming and then crumbled along with cooked vegetables. Here, instead of steaming, dal is cooked by stir-frying in oil, after seasoning with mustard, cumin seeds, chana dal, urad dal and curry leaves. When dal is half done, chopped asparagus is added and then both are cooked together.
Recipe Courtesy: Food for 7 Stages of Life

Celery Dal (Pappu)

Yet another side dish with celery. This time I made this delicious dal flavored with celery to go with either rice or roti. You can adjust the amount of celery in the dal depending on how much of the celery flavor you want in your dal. As you all know, a cup chopped celery can go a long way.
Recipe Courtesy: Uma's Trendy Relish

Bottle Gourd Ambat (Bottle Gourd n Toor Dal in Coconut Gravy)

I'm not a big fan of bottle gourd (dudhi, lauki or churakka in malayalam) and here I'm making an effort to like the vegetable. Ambat is a konkani dish with coconut based gravy and tamarind or kokum or bilimbi (irumban puli) is added for sourness. Addtion of cooked toor dal and coconut gravy made bottle gourd more appealing to the palate. It tasted like a distant cousin of sambar because of the addition of toor dal and tamarind pulp. Loved it with both rice and chapathi.
Recipe Courtesy: The Indian Food Court

Mysore Sambar (Mysore Saaru)

Sambar is a popular side dish of South India. There are regional variations in the spices used and also in the method of preparation of Sambar. In Mysore sambar, a variety of spices and grated coconut are roasted and powdered to make the Sambar powder.
Recipe Courtesy: Foodie's Hope

Kolmbo (Konkani Sambar)

This sambar is slightly different from the sambar that I usually make. In kolmbo, spices (along with grated coconut) are freshly roasted and ground instead of using masala powder.
Recipe courtesy: Shilpa's Aayi's Recipes

Gongura Pappu (Sorrel Leaves Dal)

I bought a bag of leafy vegetable from the Indian grocery store the other day thinking that it is beet greens. When I opened the bag at home I had no clue what those leaves were! After searching online for a while, finally, I figured out that those are gongura or sorrel leaves which is a delicacy in Andhra. Preparation of the dal was very easy and the dish had a slight sour taste as if though I have added lime juice or tamarind juice. It must be this sourness that makes gongura ideal for pickles. I loved it and gongura pachadi (pickle) is next in my list.
Recipe courtesy: Indira's blog Mahanandi

Kerala Sambar - Medley of Vegetables in Toor Dal

Sambar is a traditional side dish of South India with regional variations in recipe between the states and within each state. Typical Kerala sambar is a medley of vegetables in dal (yes, we don't use coconut!!!), but the vegetable selection differs from region to region. This is one of those Kerala dishes where coconut is not used in any form. Recipe courtesy: Annita's blog My Treasure...My Pleasure

Dal Tadka

Initially I used to think that dal and dal tadka are two completely different dishes. Later I figured out that 'tadka' in hindi means 'tempering'. Now, don't roll your eyes! How do I know - I grew up in Kerala and I was not paying attention in the class when our hindi teacher covered that part :) And, nobody in Bollywood movies talk about tadka either hmm...DH grew up in Gujarat and he loves to have dal with rice or chapathi.
Recipe courtesy: Phanitha's Kitchenette