4 October, 2018

Kadalekalu kattina huli and Usli | Chickpeas dal and Salad |

Usli is a kind of sauteed salad made using different kinds of legumes, which are made very often in almost all Southern parts of India.

And normally we (people of south India) make saaru/rasam using the strained water in which the legume is cooked (legume stock as in vegetable stock) and make usli/salad using that cooked legume and call it as ‘kalina kattina saaru – Usli’ in Kannada and serve them both with steaming hot rice.

We can make this salad-rasam/Usli-saaru combination using chickpeas, horse gram, cow peas, green gram, dried peas etc. You can refer Hurali kattina saaru & Usli recipe here on my blog.

So just few days ago ie…. last week, I had soaked the chickpeas to make Chickpeas-cucumber Poha/Kadalekalu southekayi avalakki for the breakfast, but they all at home wanted to have brunch but not breakfast.

However as I already had soaked chickpeas, at that very moment it did strike my mind and I tried making kattina huli by adding cooked Pigeon peas and huli pudi/sambar Powder ground along with fresh coconut to the chickpea stock (this is made very thick in consistency) instead of making regular Kattina saaru.

So that day this innovation of Kattina huli & Usli happened (I say innovation because I don’t think anybody do this I mean.. everyone normally makes rasam/saaru using this legume stock…at least I have not seen anybody doing this).

We all liked it very much, So today again I tried it using chickpeas only and very gladly sharing the recipe of the same with you all. The huli should be very thick, so use water carefully

Ingredients : (the quantity mentioned below is enough to serve for 4 to 5 people)

Toor dal/Pigeon peas/togaribele – 1 cup
Chickpeas – 1 cup
Water – 5 cups (approximately)
Thick tamarind juice – 2 tbsp (adjust)
Salt to taste (I always use rock salt)

For Masala ⇓ (huli Pudi) :

Coriander seeds – 1 tbsp
Split bengal gram – 1&1/2 tbsp
Split black gram – 1 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
Cinnamon – 1 inch piece
Whole red chili – 8 byadigi (for color) + 4 gunturu (for hotness)
Curry leaves – 2 strings
Hing – 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Grated fresh coconut – 1&1/2 cup

For tempering :

Ghee – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 string
Hing – 1/8 tsp

For making Usli :

Oil – 1/2 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Green chili – 2 to 4 (adjust)
Curry leaves – 2 strings
Coriander leaves – 2 tbsp (you can also make the paste of all these 3 things ie… green chili, coriander leaves and curry leaves)
Grated fresh coconut – 1/2 cup

PROCEDURE :

Pressure cook both soaked chickpeas + 2&1/2 cup of water and toor dal/togaribele + 2 cups of water separately
Meanwhile gather all the ingredients listed under the heading ‘ for masala/hulipudi ‘ except coconut and dry roast them
Once the mixture is warm, grind into a semi coarse paste (almost fine) by adding coconut and required water

Once pressure is released, Put the cooked chickpeas into the strainer and collect the strained water (stock) in a container

Now put the cooked toor dal/togaribele, ground masala, thick tamarind juice and salt to the strained chickpeas water (stock), bring it to boil by adding remaining 1/2 cup of water if needed

Heat 1 tsp of ghee, add in 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, curry leaves and hing and put this tempering into the prepared huli and mix well and remove from the heat