Capsicum Spinach Dal

Warm and comforting a simple Daal makes any meal filling and satisfying. Today I am sharing this recipe which is made using split moong daal. I find this recipe especially useful for my 7 year old who is fussy about eating certain vegetables. So I sneak in those vegetables while cooking the daal and proceed to making daal the regular way. The dal goes right in without him noticing or making a fuss about it. This time I added capsicum and spinach; I do not miss an opportunity to sneak in some greens and making it healthier. Now you can…

Dali Ambat (Konkani Coconut daal)

Daal is an important part of our everyday meal. Any one type of daal is a regular, be it daali thoy, daal tadka, rasam or sambhar etc and our meal is not complete without it. Now these are all non-coconut, daal rich dishes which does not require grinding. However on occasion I make coconut based daal like Kootu or this Konkani daal curry called Daali Ambat which definitely requires grinding a masala.  Ambat in Konkani refers to a coconut curry in which the seasoning is made of onions. Daali Ambat is daal based coconut curry in which has seasoning of…

Drumstick Sambhar

Sambar is one of the most loved lentil based dish in the South Indian cuisine. This versatile recipe of sambhar is  mom’s  and is one of her well loved recipes. This sambhar does not use the store bought powder instead the masala is made from scratch. Lentils, spices etc are roasted and then ground along with coconut and tamarind. Drumstick is the main vegetable in this, but you can substitute with other vegetables like brinjal, radish, carrots, beans etc.  Serves well with plain rice, idli, dosas or vadas.  Ingredients:  1 cup Tur dal 2-3 medium drumsticks ( cleaned and cut…

Appe Huli /Raw Mango Rasam

For those in the United States hope you had a wonderful long Easter weekend. We had a relaxing three days, giving us a break from the hectic and sometimes crazy weekdays. The weather was perfect; not too hot or cold, accompanied with a beautiful sunshine that lifted the spirits up.  For most part I stayed away from the kitchen; surviving many times on Maggi or takeout food. But on days when I cooked, I made something quick and delicious reminiscent of the carefree days of the past.  Appe Huli is speciality of the Havyakas residing in the Yellapur, Sirsi, Sagar…

Spicy Broken Wheat Pongal/ Dalia Khichidi

Pongal is a famous tiffin item in South India. It is usually made of rice and moong daal in a pressure cooker with appropriate seasonings. I mostly make it with rice the traditional way, on occasions I make it with rava (Rava Pongal) but this time I made this Spicy Pongal using broken wheat/dalia.  I had a packet of broken wheat lying in the pantry for a long time and was looking for ways of using it. I have tried some kheer with it before, but have not used it much in regular cooking. After looking around on the web,…

Cabbage Coconut Curry/ Cabbage Kootu

I vaguely remember eating this daal curry at a friend’s place years ago. Her mom had made this for lunch, and she had served it very lovingly. This recipe was new to me then and I recall having taken generous serving of this yummy curry. In Konkani cuisine we have quite a few varieties of daal curries, but they use red chillies for making the coconut masala while this uses green. I had made a mental note of the recipe and now I make it often though substituting cabbage with vegetable I have on hand.  This recipe well suits our…

Whole Moong Bean Sambhar

The past 10-15 days have been really busy for us and along with that we have been on an emotional roller coaster ride. With tense moments at work and some hard news from friends, we have been riding on wave of emotions ranging from disbelief to stress to restlessness. Hopefully it is all behind us now and we are now looking forward to brighter days ahead of us. As a result I did not get time to post or write in detail about this recipe. But hopefully this is a self explanatory dish based on the title of Whole Moong…