3 December, 2018

TOMATO PAPPU/DAL

This thick lentil based recipe is basically from Andhra Pradesh. Long ago I learnt this recipe from one of my friend from Andhra, Mrs Radha muralidharan. The word ‘Pappu’ in Telugu translates to lentil/dal/bele (Kannada). She use to make this Pappu using french beans and I make it using either tomato or french beans most of the times, and want to/yet to try out using onion, Ivy gourd etc. It is a very quick and easy recipe, the only time required is as much as to cook toor dal/Pigeon pea, after that the Pappu/dal will be ready in few minutes. It is made little more sour in the taste (actually Andhra people put more tamarind in everything, and I too like it that way). Tastes best with white rice, but recently I made it to go with beetroot ragi-mudde/balls as well.

Ingredients : measuring cup used is of 250 ml

Pigeon pea/arahar dal/togaribele – 1 cup
Water – 2 cups (adjust)
Tomato – 4 medium sized
Turmeric powder – 3/4 tsp
Red chili powder – 1&1/2 tsp
Tamarind juice/pulp (thick) – 1/4 cup (adjust)
Salt to taste

For tempering :

Ghee – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1/2 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds – 1/2 tsp
Split black gram/urad dal – 1 tsp
Green chili – 2
Curry leaves – 2 strings
Coriander leaves – 2 tbsp
Hing – 1/4 tsp

PROCEDURE :

Rinse well the lentil, cut tomato into cubes, gather both, add water and salt (you can add later also) and cook till soft
Once cooked, remove from the cooker and add in turmeric powder and red chili powder to the cooked lentil

Heat ghee in a pan, add in mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, urad dal, slit green chili, curry leaves and hing…saute everything well till slight brown (here I have also added beetroot pulp/paste, of about 2 tbsp, which I got while I prepared/made beetroot ragi mudde, So it further enhanced the color and taste of the Pappu)