This dish is pure love in a bowl. It makes me feel like a giddy child again and I feel humbled and deliriously happy whenever I cook it.

I particularly love toovar (pigeon peas) Dokri. I fondly remember watching my ma (granny) eat this, with fascination, as a youngster. She would always add extra salt to her plate and individually suck the flesh from each pea with gusto. She would also squeeze it between her fingers until it was unrecognizable and then shovel it into her mouth, quickly. Her entire plate edge would be lined with peels, and to me it looked beautiful. I began eating like this too, until my mother shouted at me, “Eat everything Reesha. You don’t have false teeth.”

Fresh toovar is hard to come by in Johannesburg where I live, so this recipe is my staple when I’m in the mood for a hearty bowl of lentils and love.

Nutritionally, it’s very carb heavy, so I recommend only having this as a lunch meal and not very often.

Ingredients for Dal

1 cup oil dhal (boiled)

1 cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

2 tsp oil

1 onion (diced)

4 dry red chilies

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp jeera seeds

1 curry leaf stalk

1 tsp ginger. finely chopped

1 tsp garlic, grated

1 tsp jeera powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp chili powder

pinch of hing (asoefatida)

2 tomato’s, grated

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp garam masala

1/4 cup coriander (roughly chopped)

salt to taste

Method

1. Rinse and cook the oil dhall, by boiling it until it’s very soft in a pot of water with salt. I usually add a cinnamon stick to this process and 2 bay leaves for flavor. You can do this in a pressure cooker as well. For a smooth texture blend smooth with an emulsion blender once it’s cooked.

2. In a separate pot, heat oil and fry dry red chilies, mustard seeds, jeera seeds and the curry leaf stalk until the fragrance of the spice releases. You will hear the mustard seeds popping.

3. Fry onions until translucent.

4. Add ginger and garlic and stir for not longer than 1 minute before adding jeera powder, chilli powder, turmeric and hing to the pot. Mix well.

5. Add tomato and lemon juice and lower the heat to medium. Simmer for 10 minutes before adding the cooked dhall.

6. Pour 2 cups of cold water to the pot, close it and keep your dhall at a rolling boil for now.

Ingredients for Dokri

1 cup wheat flour

pinch of turmeric

1 tsp salt

1 tsp oil

1/2 tsp chili powder

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, spices, oil and salt well with your hands.

2. Add 1/2 cup of boiling water and mix with a spoon before kneading into a dough.

3. Divide the dough into 8 balls and roll fine with a floured rolling pin. Cut into diamond shapes or small sizes of your choice and drop this into the dhall.

4. Once all the dokri is in the pot, turn off the heat and let the pot simmer on its own for 10 minutes before serving.

5. Salt to taste.

6. Garnish with coriander and garam masala and serve hot in a bowl with nothing else.

Top tip: Make the dough while the dhall boils. It will save time. Don’t be afraid of stirring your pot once you drop the dough into the dhall. If the dhall is getting too thick, keep adding water a little bit at a time to keep your dish at the right consistency.