Nandita Godbole’s Skinless Yellow Mung Bean Daal with Red Pumpkin and Cherry Tomatoes

Nandita Godbole is an award-winning author, journalist, and entrepreneur whose work celebrates the intersection of food, culture, and place. Trained as both a botanist and a landscape architect, she brings a unique ecological lens to her storytelling—bridging her deep understanding of spices and landscapes with the sensory and emotional worlds of cooking, eating and sharing.

As the founder of Curry Cravings™ LLC, Godbole has independently published seven acclaimed cookbooks that explore Indian cuisine through history, heritage, and design. Her most recent title, Masaleydaar: Classic Indian Spice Blends, received the Gourmand World Cookbook Award (Asia), recognizing her expertise in regional spice traditions. All of her titles are an exploration of everyday Indian dining rituals. Her next cookbook will be released in Winter 2026.

Godbole’s words and work have appeared in national outlets including Food Network, Eater, Washington Post, Thrillist and others, where she is known for illuminating the cultural stories behind food and drink. Her earlier book, Ten Thousand Tongues, weaves memoir and social history to chronicle women’s culinary legacies and was featured on NBC-Asian America, City Lights with Lois Reitzes on WABE, and others.

A passionate advocate for mindful living and the arts, Godbole is also a practicing ceramic artist and painter, often drawing inspiration from India’s landscapes, folk traditions, and culinary forms. Her ongoing projects explore material culture through the lens of food and craft.

Through her writing, art, and public speaking, Nandita Godbole invites audiences to see food not just as sustenance, but as a living archive of memory, migration, and meaning. In addition to LDEI, Godbole is a member of AAJA (Asian American Journalists Association) and serves as the Atlanta Chapter’s Board representative. She divides her time between Atlanta and Los Angeles, CA.

www.currycravingskitchen.com | www.Instagram.com/currycravings

Nandita Godbole's Skinless Yellow Mung Bean Daal with Red Pumpkin and Cherry Tomatoes

As the weather turns cooler, hearty daals appear morefrequently at dinner tables. Yellow mung bean daal is one of the easiest tocook. A welcome and nutrient rich addition to this daal is a perennial favoritevegetable in the Indian cuisine: red pumpkin. Quartered portions of red pumpkinare frequently available in the vegetable aisle at Indian grocery stores. Itsskin isn't as firm as a pie pumpkin and can be easily peeled away with akitchen peeler. It is also sweeter in taste than pie pumpkins. If red pumpkinis not available, butternut squash, calabaza squash or an acorn squash workequally well for this dish.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Course: lunch, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• INGREDIENTS
• 2 tbsp cooking oil or 1 tbsp ghee
• ½ tsp black mustard seeds
• ½ cup thinly sliced red onions
• ½ tsp ginger paste
• ½ tsp garlic paste
• 4-5 fresh curry leaves optional
• 2 cloves optional
• ⅛ tsp turmeric powder
• ¼ tsp gluten-free asafetida
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper powder optional, adjust to taste
• ½ cup peeled and diced red pumpkin or a preferred seasonal squash
• 1 cup skinless split yellow moong daal
• 2 cups water extra as needed
• Salt to taste
• ½ tsp sugar
• ½ cup or 4-6 cherry tomatoes halved

Method

 

1. Rinse the skinless split yellow moong daal and keep it soaking in one cup of water for 20 mins.
2. Heat the oil or ghee in a deep saucepan. When the oil is warm and shimmering or the ghee has melted, add black mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds have popped and released their flavors, add the sliced onions. Lightly stir the onion slices until they become translucent. Add the ginger paste, garlic paste, and curry leaves (if using). Stir until fragrant. Reduce the heat to low. If using cloves, add them now and step back as cloves will likely jump around in the pan. Stir in the turmeric, asafetida, and cayenne pepper powder if using. Increase the heat to medium high, add the diced red pumpkin and stir well again. Cook for 30 seconds to cook the pumpkin with the spices.
3. Drain away the water from the soaking skinless split yellow moong daal and add it to the saucepan. Stir well until everything is evenly coated in all the spices. Add a cup of water to this and bring to a boil. Then cover and reduce the heat, allowing everything to soften and finish cooking. Check the daal after 10 minutes. A well-cooked daal will be soft, with the consistency of gravy or a creamy soup. Add a half cup of water to adjust consistency, only if needed. Allow this to finish cook¬ing. Season with salt and sugar. Add in the halved cherry tomatoes a few minutes just before serving.
4. Serve hot over rice, or alongside parathas. Pair with a side of Greek yogurt and an assortment of freshly cut cucumbers and radishes.