I’m sure looking up a recipe for Jain Fry Dal will take you 90% of the way there, and the remaining 10%, doesn’t really translate to text, sorry about that. Also i’m not going to be here pretending to know all there is to know about a culture that’s not mine. I don’t even do that with my own culture lol.

Here are some pointers off the top of my head, though:

• Onions and garlic add (among other things) a sulphuric taste, so you want a bit of sulphur coming from the other ingredients if you’re not using them . So, for instance, if you’re going to cook lentils or chickpeas, you can set aside some of them after they’re cooked and let them brown with fat, so they develope a more sulphur-y flavor. Same with fresh chilies. Don’t do all of them, or the dish will be bitter, but set aside some of them and let them fry for longer than you would normally. That will add layers of flavor to your dish. A very non-indian hack I’ve found to add some of that flavor is using a tiny bit of miso or other fermented stuff that’s rich in aroma and umami when blooming the spices.
• Embrace acid, especially if it’s fresh. Squeeze some lime right before serving, it will change everything. Alliums give sweetness and brightness on top of their aroma, so try to substitute that.
• Learn when and how to use hing (asafoetida). I’m not great at it, but the best Indian cooks I know swear by it.