Wash your daal really well and add to a pot with about 2 cups of water. Add your curry leaves, turmeric, chili powder, aseofitida, ginger-garlic paste, and curry leaves.

Bring the pot to a simmer and allow the daal to cook. Once the lentil is completely cooked through, turn off the heat.

Using an immersion blender or regular blender, blend until relatively smooth. (You can keep it a little chunky if you like).

Prep the vegetables that you would like in your sambar. Cut them into thick pieces or to your liking. I listed above the vegetables that I like to use.

In a pot or pan, heat some oil on medium-high heat. Add your cumin and mustard seeds.

Once the cumin and mustard seeds start popping, add your shallots. Sautee them and add your ginger-garlic paste.

Cook the rest of the vegetables in the order of how long it takes for them to cook. Add the sambar spice mix along with the salt.

Add a little bit of water and allow the veggies to cook down. Make sure they don't get mushy.

Add the daal that you cooked earlier to the pot of vegetables.

Stir in the tamarind and jaggery. *Note - the amount of tamarind you use will depend on how diluted your tamarind is with water. Always start with a small amount and taste and adjust as you go.

Feel free to add more water if sambar is too thick.

In another small pan, do the baghar step. Add a little bit of oil to a pan along with the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, and curry leaves. Once the mustard and cumin seeds start to pop - remove from heat and add to sambar. Stir and serve.