Boil toovar daal with a pinch of turmeric powder and salt.
Boil till its 50% cooked. Add the drumstick leaves. Once the leaves are a little cooked and daal is 70% cooked, turn off the gas.
Drain the water and keep it in a separate bowl. Divide the daal and drumstick leaves in to 1 part and 3 parts. Both the parts need to be cooked separately.
For the first part , dry curry, using the one quarter part of the boiled toovar daal and leaves. Add oil to a pan, Add the sliced onions, cook till onions turn brown and add a few curry leaves.
Now add, half of the shredded coconut to it and cook till coconut turns brown. At this point, make sure the curry isn’t too dry.
Now, add the toovar daal and leaves. Mix everything properly. Its ready to serve. This is the dry curry.
Make a puree of tomatoes, ginger garlic, coconut, tamarind, coriander leaves, green chilies, dry red chilies, cinnamon, cumin seeds, cloves and black pepper.
Now the other part of this dish with remaining three quarters of the toovar daal and leaves. Puree this part of toovar daal and leaves.
Mix both purees together in a pan and bring them to a boil. The soup thickens while boiling.
Meanwhile, in another pan, add some oil, add mustard seeds and once they crackle, add curry leaves followed by the chopped onions. Cook till onions turn transparent or pink. Add the red chili powder and turmeric powder.
Add this tempering to the boiling soup. Cook the soup till it reaches the desired consistency. Serve with Rice or parantha.
The soup goes well with rice.
The dry curry can be served with phulka/Parantha or on the side with rice.