Radish Leaves Paruppu Usili

We all are so used to the regular veggies for our paruppu usili. This is a different one. I was talking to my mom about these fresh leaves from my garden. She then said that even the leaves of radish are edible which I never knew. Later she gave me an idea of making paruppu usili with these leaves rather than the usual keerai sambar. So I tried this today and it came out really well. I just had handful of leaves so I got just the cup above full of paruppu usili. What ever said and done, it is always special when it is grown in your own garden. We really relished this for our lunch. It was so great to eat our home grown veggies. I used these radishes for my salad along with some cherry tomatoes ( home grown ). 

Nutritional Benefits:


Channa dal and toor dal are rich in protein. 
Radish leaves are said to be rich in Vit C content, calcium and protein. 

Ingredients:

Radish Leaves - Handful (basically its leaves of a bunch of small red radishes)

Channa dhal - 2 tbsp (Soaked for about 4 hrs)

Toor Dhal - 2 tbsp (Soaked for about 4 hrs)

Red Chilii - 2

Oil - 1 tbsp

Asafoetida - a pinch

Salt - to taste

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Turmeric - a pinch

Preparation: 

Grind soaked toor dhal along with channa dhal, red chili, asafoetida, turmeric, salt into a paste. Add just sufficient water to make it to a paste. 

Heat a pan and add oil. When hot enough add mustard seeds. When splutters, add urad dhal and asafoetida. When it turns golden brown, add the groung paste and let it cook. Sprinke water when necessary to let it cook. Cover it with lid for about couple of mins till it cooks well. 

Add the chopped radish leaves and start to saute the mixture untill the dhal mixture becomes crumbly and does not stick to the pan. By then these leaves will also be cooked. Add salt if necessary. 

The dish is ready. Serve it with sambar rice or just mix with hot rice and relish. 

Sending this to Shoba's Cook it Healthy - Proteinicious

Vazhaikaai Roast / Raw Banana Roast

When we were browsing through the veggies section at our market yesterday, my husband saw this fresh vaazhaikai. Immediately he came to me with them, looked at me and said make roast with this tomorrow. I could see the excitement in his eyes when he asked for roast. He was waiting for me to get back after vacation to have proper food.  So thats how I made this today for him. My Valentine Day's special lunch for him ;-) - Radish Sambar, Raw Banana roast, simple salad and papad. This menu is his all time fav :-)

Ingredients:

Raw Banana/ Vaazhaikai - 3 medium size cut into small cubes

Oil - 3 -4 tbsp

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Mustard - 1 tsps

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 6-8 leaves

Red Chilli powder - 3/4 tbsp

Asafoetida - a pinch

Preparation:

Heat non stick pan and add oil . When it is hot, add mustard seeds and let splutter. Now add urad dhal, cumin seeds, curry leaves, asafoetida.

When urad dhal turns golden brown add raw banana. Add turmeric, red chilli and mix well. Now add salt and let it cook in medium heat.

Stir occasionally and sprinkle water when necessary so that it gets cooked well. 

Leave it in medium low heat for a while till it turns brown and crispy checking in between to avoid burning the food.

Serve hot with sambar rice, roti. 

See you soon with Radish sambar / Mooli Sambar - pressure cooker method :-)

Avial in a jiffy with vegan version

I was wondering what to make for lunch today and avial came to my mind. I had some veggies precut and stored. This came handy and I was done with my cooking in no time. Very healthy dish, can be had with rice, roti, paratha ... When we went to Munnar, India, I remember in a hotel they served hot paratha with avial. It tasted wonderful and from then avial became my fav dish.

Ingredients:

Mixed veggies - 2 cups (chopped lenthwise)
Coconut oil - 1 tbps
Mustard - 1 tsps
Urad dhal - 1 tsps
Yogurt - 1 tbsps (optional for non dairy consumers)
Curry leaves - 6-8

To Grind:


Coconut - 2 tbsps grated
Cumin seeds - 1 tbsps
Green Chilli - 1

Preparation:

Cook vegetables and keep aside.

Grind coconut, cumin seeds, green chilli into fine paste

Heat the pan and add the veggies. Add salt, turmeric and mix well. Fry for about 2 mins till salt mixes well. Now add the ground mixture to the veggies.

Heat another kadai with coconut oil and add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add urad dhal and curry leaves. When it turns golden brown add it to the veggies.

Just before serving, add a tbsps of yogurt and mix well.

Serve it with just plain rice and papad as side dish.

Vegan version - Just skip the yogurt part. Tastes good without yogurt as well.

Sending this to Priya' Only - Low Calorie Low Oil event
Also to Taste of Pearl City's Anyone can cook Event

Fatafat Keerai Kootu - Spinach Curry

I got back from my grocery shopping and my husband was already home waiting for me to have lunch.. Oops!!! Usually my grocery time is post lunch because I will cook proper lunch for my husband. He comes home everyday to eat good food. But this time I wanted to try going to the store in the morn thinking I will get fresh veggies and succeeded. But the minus part is, I came home right on time for my lunch. Thank God! My keerai kootu saved me today. Its very simple one and you can make it so quickly. Spinach is very good for our health as we all know. When it is combined with dhal, it adds more nutritional value to food. The ingredients that I used in this is also good for cold or cough. I just cooked rice and spinach before I left home and it was easy when I got back. Just had to do the seasoning and it was ready to be served. 

Ingredients:

Spinach - 2 cups
Moong Dhal - 1/4 cup
Oil - 1 tbsps
Mustard seeds - 1tsps
Urad dhal - 1 tsps
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Cumin seeds - 2 tbsps
Black Pepper - 2 tbpsp
Coconut - 2 tbsps grated
Salt - To taste
Curry Leaves - 6- 8 leaves
Turmeric - 1/4 tsps

Pressure cook spinach and moong dhal with just enough water to cook moong dhal. Spinach will also give out some water.

In a pan, add oil. When hot, add mustard seeds. Add urad dhal when mustards splutter. Add curry leaves and asafoetida. Now add cooked spinach and let it boil for about 2 mins. Add turmeric.

Grind raw pepper, cumin seeds and coconut to a nice powder

Add the ground powder, salt to the spinach and mix well. Let it boil for another 2 mins.

Keerai kootu is ready.

Serve hot with rice, roti. You can make it more dilute by adding more water. If it is thick eat with rotis. I made this dilute today so that we can mix with rice. you can just have chips or papad for the side.

Tip: If you want the spinach not to lose color, cook spinach separately in a pan and not pressure cook with the dhal. Pressure cook dhal and mix it with spinach. The dish will look green and fresh. If you dont have time, you could jus keep it all together. that works well too... Thanks for visiting! See you soon!

Beans Paruppu Ussili

The best combination for more kozhambu will be paruppu usili. Untill I got married, I never liked both the dishes. Actually i hardly used to eat at home when my mom made this at home. But fortunately or unfortunately, my husband's favorite combination is more kozhambu and beans paruppu usili. So I make it for him and am forced to eat it too. There are many such dishes that I started to eat after I got married :-).

The best thing i like about my usili is that i make the dhal mixture little crispy as i fry it well. It tastes good with the vegetables. You can also make cabbage paruppu usili, beans usili, also vazhapoo paruppu usili. The process is the same. Add cooked vegetables to the usili mixture. It has good and different taste when we use different vegetables.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Beans - 1 cup Chopped

Toor Dhal - 3 Tbsp (Soaked for 3 hrs)

Channa Dhal - 1.5 Tbsp (Soaked for 3 hrs)

Red Chilli - 2 ( depends on requirement)

Salt - To taste

Asafoetida - 2 Dashes

Turmeric - A pinch

For Seasoning:

Oil - 3 Tbsp

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urad Dhal - 1 tsp

Curry Leaves - 5 to 8 leaves

Boil beans or any other vegetable mentioned above. Grind soaked toor dhal, channa dhal, red chillies turmeric salt and some curry leaves into coarse paste. Do not add too much water. Now in a pan, heat oil and add mustard. When it splutters add urad dhal, curry leaves, asafoetida. Add the ground mixture and keep frying till the mixture cooks well. The paste will change color and becomes seperate granules. Keep frying till it turns into light brown and crispy. Now add the cooked beans and stir it untill everything blends well. Keep it in medium flame for 2-5 mins stirring occasionally. Paruppu usili is ready in mintues.

Tastes really good and its a great source of protein. The crispy misxture blends well with the vegetable. Its a nice way to make kids eat vegetables in disguised form.