Palak-Koottu

#PalakKoottu  #PalakLentil : #Koottu is a thick gravy prepared from #greens or #vegetables adding lentil and coconut paste. #Koottu is served as a side dish for sambar or rasam rice for lunch. Some greens such as mulai keerai, siru keerai, venthaya keerai, manathakkali keerai, palak, etc., are suitable to prepare #Keeraikoottu. As #Greens are full of fiber, minerals and vitamins, we have to include them in our daily diet.
Here comes a recipe of koottu with #palakgreens

Ingredients :
1 cup	Palak greens chopped
1/3 cup	Green gram
3/4 Tsp	Sambar Powder [ adjust ]
1 pinch	Turmeric powder
1/2 Tsp	Salt [ adjust ]
To grind :
4 Tsp	Coconut scraping [ adjust ]
2 or 3	Black pepper [ optional ]
1/4 Tsp	Cumin
1/4 Tsp	Rice flour
To Temper :
1/2 Tsp	Vengaya vadavam
1/2 Tsp	Oil

Method :

Take split green gram in a small vessel.

Wash and then add a pinch of turmeric powder.

Add 1/2 cup of water.

Add a cup of water in a pressure cooker and keep the above vessel inside the cooker.

Pressure cook on HIGH flame for 1 whistle and then reduce the flame to SIM & cook for 7 minutes.

Open the pressure cooker only after it ran out of steam.

Set aside.

Grind coconut, pepper, cumin and rice paste into a nice paste using a blender.

Keep aside.

Take a pressure cooker and add 1/4 cup of water.

Then add salt, Sambar Powder and turmeric powder.

Spread chopped palak leaves.

Over the leaves add cooked lentil and coconut paste.

Close the cooker with weight on.

Cook on HIGH flame for two whistles.

Immediately release pressure and mix well.

If it is thick add some hot water and mix well.

Transfer into a serving bowl.

Temper Vengaya vadavam and put over the koottu.

Tasty tasty palak koottu is ready to enjoy.

#PalakKoottu is a great accompaniment to sambar rice or rasam rice.
Palak koottu can also be mixed with hot white rice and relished along with any poriyal or kara curry or pickle

Other lentil recipes you might like to try

vazhaipoo koottu

noolkhol leaf lentil

Palak Masiyal

Palak Chappathy

Mushroom Palak soup

For other tasty dishes

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Palak-Lentil

#PalakLentil [ #PalakDhal ] : #Palak or #PalakKeerai tastes like Mulaikeerai. So if palak keerai is not available then mulaikeerai can be used in its place. Some years back we never used to get palak in Chennai and even now palak is not available in most parts of TN. But now #PalakKeerai is widely available in Chennai.  If the leaves are tender then it takes very less time to cook. Some varieties of palak tastes slightly bitter. Masiyal, palak koottu can be prepared using this keerai.
#Greens are good source of vitamins, minerals and fibre. We should include green leafy vegetable in our daily diet.
Here comes a very tasty and simple recipe using palak.

Ingredients :
1/8 Cup	Green gram split
1/2 Cup	Palak, washed and chopped
1 small size	Tomato, washed and chopped nicely
1 medium size	Onion, peeled and chopped
1 or 2	Green chilly [ adjust ], slit lengthwise
10 to 12	Curry leaves
small amount	Coriander leaves to garnish
2 pinch	Turmeric powder
1/4 Tsp	Cumin powder
1/2 Tsp	Salt [ adjust ]
To Temper :
1/4 Tsp	Mustard seed
1/2 Tsp	Black gram split
1/2 Tsp	Oil

Method :
Take green gram in a 2/3 lt pressure cooker.
Wash once and add a pinch of turmeric powder and 1/4 cup of water.
Pressure cook on High flame for 3 whistles.
Open the pressure cooker only after it ran out of steam.

Heat a kadai with 1/2 Tsp of oil on a stove over medium flame.
Crackle mustard seeds and then add split black gram.
Then add green chilly and curry leaves once black gram turns golden color.
Saute for few seconds and then add chopped onion.
Saute till onion becomes pale pink in color.
Now add chopped tomato and saute till it becomes soft.
Add turmeric powder, cumin powder and salt.
Mix well and add chopped palak & 1/3 cup of water.
Add cooked green gram and simmer till palak cooks soft.
Adjust salt and turn off the stove.
Transfer into a serving bowl.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

#PalakKoottu goes well with white rice.
Tastes good with chappathy and puri also.

Other green leafy vegetable recipes 

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Venthayakeerai-Koottu

#VenthayakeeraiKoottu #FenugreekLeafLentil : #Koottu is a gravy prepared using any vegetable or green leafy vegetable, lentil and coconut paste. It is served as a side dish for lunch. Generally green leafy vegetables are more suitable for koottu.
Commonly green gram is used in the preparation of koottu. But toor dhal can also be used. Lentil has to be pressure cooked separately. Coconut paste is made using a blender adding a few black pepper corns, little cumin seeds, rice flour along with coconut scraping. Greens are washed well in water two or three times and then cooked in water adding Sambar Powder , turmeric powder & salt. Once greens are done then cooked dhal and coconut paste are finally added to it. It is allowed to simmer for 3 to 5 minutes. Served after tempering with onion vadagam.

Ingredients :
1 cup	Venthayakeerai chopped
1/3 cup	Green gram
3/4 Tsp	Sambar Powder [ adjust ]
1 pinch	Turmeric powder
1/2 Tsp	Salt [ adjust ]
To grind :
4 Tsp	Coconut scraping
2 or 3	Black pepper [ optional ]
1/4 Tsp	Cumin
1/4 Tsp	Rice flour
To Temper :
1/2 Tsp	Vengaya vadavam
1/2 Tsp	Oil

Method :
Wash green gram dhal and put in a pressure pan or pressure cooker.
Add a pinch of turmeric powder and 1/2 cup of water. Close the lid with weight on.
Keep the cooker on high flame and allow 3 whistles.
Then reduce the flame to SIM and cook for 3 minutes.

Using a blender grind coconut, cumin seeds, black pepper and the rice flour into a fine paste.
Keep aside.

Open the cooker once pressure has subsided.
Transfer into a bowl and keep aside.

Heat a vessel or kadai with half a cup of water.
Add Sambar Powder, turmeric powder, salt and mix well.
Then add finely chopped venthaya keerai.
Close and cook till greens become soft.
Then add cooked green gram and coconut paste.
Mix well and allow to simmer for five minutes or until all blend together.

Transfer into a serving bowl.
Heat a kadai with oil and fry the Vengaya vadavam.
Pour over the prepared koottu.

A very good side dish for sambar or rasam rice.
It can also be mixed with hot white rice and relished with onion vathal.




Other lentil recipes you might like to try

Vazhaipoo Koottu

noolkhol leaf lentil

vegetable pulillacurry

venthayakeerai thakkali koottu

venthayakeerai dhal

For other tasty dishes

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Ideas for breakfast and dinner

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For Lunch Dishes

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Venthayakeerai-dhal

#VenthayakeeraiDhal  #FenugreekLeafLentil : Now plenty of  hardly 6 or 7 cm long tender fenugreek saplings  are available in the market.  They are rich in aroma but slightly bitter in taste. North Karnataka people used to take fresh raw fenugreek  leaves along with Joladha roti [ Jowar roti ]. Once I had a chance to relish fresh tender fenugreek leaves in a famous north Karnataka restaurant. From then on wards I have started using fenugreek leaves to garnish dishes just like the way we use fresh coriander leaves. Not only tender leaves, also leaves of fully grown fenugreek plant can be consumed raw.
The leaves of the fenugreek are washed and dried in the shadow to get Kasthuri methi. These dried fenugreek leaves are commonly added in North Indian dishes to get its aroma and flavor.
Here I have used tender saplings of fenugreek to make a tasty lentil [ dhal ] which goes well with hot white rice, 

Jeera rice and chappathy.
Sliced onion, green chilly, curry leaves, asafoetida, turmeric powder and tomato are sauteed till they give out nice aroma. Then cooked dhal and salt are added. It is allowed to simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.
Finally washed and gently chopped fenugreek leaves are added and kept on fire for two minutes.
The prepare dhal is transferred into a serving bowl and served after tempering mustard and split black gram.
Tasty spicy dhal is ready.

Ingredients :
1 cup	Venthaya keerai tender
1/2 cup	Green gram dhal cooked
1	Tomato, chop nicely
1	Onion, chop nicely
1 or 2	Green chilly [ adjust ]
5 - 6	Curry leaves
1/8 Tsp	Asafoetida powder
1/2 Tsp	Cumin powder
3/4 Tsp	salt
1 pinch	Turmeric powder
1/2 Tsp	Lemon juice [ optional ]
1 Tsp	Gingelly oil [ sesame/til oil ]
To Temper :
1/2 Tsp	Mustard seeds
1/2 Tsp	Black gram split
1/2 Tsp	Gingelly oil [ sesame/til oil ]

1 Tsp of chopped coriander leaves to garnish

Method :

Heat a kadai with oil on a stove over medium heat.
After it becomes hot saute green chilly, curry leaves for half a minute.
Then add asafoetida powder and chopped onion.
Saute adding a pinch of salt till it becomes translucent.
Next saute tomato adding turmeric powder, little salt and cumin powder till it becomes soft.
At this stage add cooked dhal, 1/4 cup water and salt.
Mix well and let it simmer for 3 minutes.
Finally chop fenugreek leaves gently and add into simmering dhal.
Let it be on slow fire until the leaves become soft.
Adjust salt and add lemon juice after turning off the stove.

Transfer into a serving bowl.
Temper mustard seeds and split black gram and pour over the dhal.
Garnish with coriander leaves.
Tasty healthy dhal with nice aroma of venthaya keerai dhal is ready.
Mix with hot white rice and relish with any spicy curry.

It also goes well with chappathy and Jeera rice.


Note : If country tomato is used then don't have to use lemon juice in the preparation.




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Araikeerai-Masiyal

#AraikeeraiMasiyal ( #AraikeeraiMashed ), the most simple & tastiest recipe using green leafy vegetable. It is one of  the best ways to get all the goodness of green leafy vegetable since it is not being cooked over fire for a long time thereby destroying its vital nutrients.

Keerai Masiyal is a Tamil word and it means mashed greens. 

All are not suitable for making keerai masiyal. The taste of keerai masiyal will be very good only when its been done with some greens like mulai keerai, palak, tender thandu keerai, red mulai keerai and arai keerai. 

 The green leafy vegetable is washed in water two or three times to remove all the impurities . It is then cooked in a vessel or pressure cooker with little water. I usually pressure cook greens on high flame for one whistle and then take out cooked greens after immediately releasing steam by keeping the pressure cooker under running water or by carefully lifting the weight from the nozzle.

Allow cooked greens to come to room temperature and then mashed along with crushed garlic and salt.

Commonly the cooked greens are mashed using a churn dash in a wide mouthed mud pot. But I used to mash them using a blender.

Preparing keerai masiyal seems to be very easy but it should be done with utmost care. If it has been overcooked, greens might loose its green color and also its distinct taste. If its not cooked well it might not be palatable.

Now over to the recipe

Ingredients :
a hand full	araikeerai
2 or 3	garlic cloves
1/4 Tsp	salt [ adjust ]

Method :
Wash arai keerai thoroughly 2 or 3 times with water in a wide mouthed vessel.
Take 1/2 cup of water in a pressure cooker.
Put arai keerai in the cooker.
Close the lid with weight on.
Cook for 1 whistle on high flame.
Turn off the stove.

Release steam immediately by keeping the cooker under running water or simply removing weight.
Transfer into a bowl. Let the cooked arai keerai to come down to room temperature.

Do not throw away the water used for cooking.
It can be added to rasam or sambar.

Now in a mixie jar take garlic cloves ( remove skin ) and run for a second.

Then add the palak & salt and grind only for few seconds to get coarsely blended arai keerai masiyal.

Tasty tasty keerai masiyal with intense flavor of garlic is ready!!
It has to be consumed as soon as it has been prepared to enjoy its true taste.

Take hot hot white rice in a plate. Add 2 table spoon full of prepared keerai masiyal.
Mix well after adding a dash of gingelly oil [ sesame / till oil ].
Relish with sambar and vathakuzhambu.
AAh!! wow!! wow!! what a taste!! enjoy!!...

Note : The scientific name of Arai keerai is Amaranthus dubius.




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