Wash and soak chanadal for 2-3 hours.Once dal is soaked well, discard extra water.
Meanwhile clean methi leaves,wash and chop finely.
Grind chana dal along with coconut,ginger and green chilli to a coarse paste. Do not add any water.
Transfer the coarse paste to a wide container.
To the coarse bengal gram paste , add chopped methi leaves and salt .Mix well.
Prepare a steamer. Once water starts boiling place the container having methi dal mixture inside the steamer and steam cook for about 15-20 mins. Switch off. Allow it to cool . Later puff it up using a fork to break the lumps.
In a non stick / heavy bottom pan take oil. Add mustard seeds,urad dal n chana dal.One they splutter add haldi,hing ,curry leaves and broken red chilli pieces. saute for a min.
Next add pre semicooked methi chana dal mix. Mix well. Keep the flame on sim and stir in between . Continue the process for another 5-10 mins so that raw smell goes and methi chandal sabzi gets a nice roasted taste n appearance.
Turn off the flame and squeeze lemon. Mix well. Serve hot matodi palya topped with ghee with steaming rice / chapathi / eat as such .
Notes
Make sure to grind dal coarsely, if it becomes a paste then you will not get the perfect texture.So drain water completely.
In the authentic version steaming step is not there. Once u grind the lentil, its cooked directly on stove top in medium flame .This calls for more oil else lentil paste will stick to the bottom.Also takes more time. But if you wish you can do this way too.
If you want you can make it with tuvar dal or a combination of tuvar n chana dal.
Instead of methi leaves you can also use chopped cluster beans or beans.
Traditionally no onions are used while making this. But if you want while tempering you can add chopped onions.
Instead of green chilli you can use red chillies or combination of both .