Vatha Kuzhambu

Some of my earliest food memories are of having this dish at my grandmother's place. She used to make it with dried veggies (mostly unseasonal veggies which were dried when they were in season), but my mother's always made it with fresh veggies. Strangely, my mother parted with the recipe more easily than I thought she would- I guess she is happy to have finally found someone who might prove herself worthy of the family recipes.

Dry roast 1 tbsp of urad (or chana) dal, and crush it coarsely.
Temper 1 tsp mustard seeds, crushed dal, 1 tsp methi seeds, curry leaves and one red chilli broken in two till the mustard stops spluttering.
Add 1 tbsp sambhar powder and fry on low heat till the aroma fills the room.
Add 1/2 cup tamarind pulp (a tabletennis ball sized tamarind ball in 1/2 cup warm water), 1 tsp turmeric, salt to taste, water and any veggies you may want to add (since I wanted to finish the shallots I had, I fried them slightly before adding, but most other veggies can be added as such). Bring to a boil, then cook till the veggies are well done.
Add a bit of rice flour (about 1 tbsp) and bring to a single boil, if you want to thicken further.
I like it as it is, but you might want to tone it down a bit with jaggery.
Normally, this is had with rice, parpu podi (dal powder) and ghee, but I like it with khichadi/ pongal.

Note- I like to call this a "nothing" dish, because it doesn't have any proteins in it. If you are fussy about having proteins at every meal (I'm not except on days when I work out a lot), you need to make sure the proteins come from something else.