When I began learning cooking from my mother, I had a desire to take some of the comfort food I had as a child and make it my own. Growing up in an Indian-vegetarian household, I remember our pantry lined with bins full of all sorts of lentils--moong, masoor, chana, urid--so the lentil, or dal, was an obvious choice for my own kitchen. The base of this recipe is my mother's, but over the past few years, I have since expanded and modified it to suit my own taste. I generally use split moong dal, which looks like split peas. You can use other lentils, but I would not recommend thin ones, as they become mushy very quickly. Salt is key--when you cook with so many spices, you need enough salt to be able to taste the spices, otherwise you only smell them. Some chilies are milder than others, so you can always add more if you'd like it hotter. If you are disappointed in the chili hotness, you can add red chili powder too (but this should be done while the lentils are still cooking, not towards the end). You can also substitute the spinach with another vegetable--okra, zucchini, other leafy green--or use a bunch of fresh spinach instead of frozen. Adding butter at the end will soften any taste that is too strong. I find this dal the simplest and most comforting food that I make, and I hope you will be able to say the same for yourself.

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