Keerai Kootu

    "Keerai", as we all know, its the most healthy veggie. Only because of this reason, this will be my mandatory dish which will be there in my lunch menu atleast once in a week minimum. Since it will be there in all week of my lunch menu, i don't feel like preparing the same recipe so will be keep on excavating a new dish either by asking mom or by googling. So this is my one version which i got from my mom. Do check it and let me know ur feedback as well.

ALL YOU NEED:

Spinach	1 bunch
Chopped Onion	1 No.
Moong Dhall	1/2 cup
Turmeric Powder	Pinch
Coconut	3 pieces
Cumin Seeds	1/2 spoon
Red Chilly	2 Nos.
Mustard	1/2 spoon
Urad Dhall	1 spoon
Salt	To Taste
Oil	2 spoons

METHOD:
    Pressure Moong Dhall by adding pinch of turmeric powder for 5 whistles. Let it sit for a while. Now, heat a spoon of oil, add mustard, add a red chilly, add chopped onion. Saute it by adding pinch of salt. Now add on cleaned and chopped spinach. Saute it for 1 min. Now grind coconut and cumin by adding water and pour it to the pan, mix well and allow it to get cooked by adding pinch of turmeric powder. Once done, pour the cooked moongdhall, do fine sauting until it all get mixed up. Adjust with salt. Now in a separate small pan, heat oil, add mustard, now add urad dhall, red chilly and cumin seeds. Now pour it into the spinach mixture and mix well. Put off the flame. Serve hot !

♬ Sangeetha♡Nambi ♬

Appalam Kootu

    This was one of my BIG most favorite dish among my mom's preparation. The best part of this was, i love the appalam/pappad which was completely soaked in the bengal gram kootu. Whenever my mom prepares this dish, am the only person who takes empty all the soaked appalam and leave it as plain bengal gram kootu :P But some point of time, dont know why she stopped preparing (may be am eating all the appalam without leaving it for others :P) But, after loooooooooong gap me somehow recollected the recipe and prepared it for our lunch time and now its for your views.

ALL YOU NEED:

Soaked Bengal Gram	1 cup
Diced Potato	1/2 cup
Chopped Onion	1 No.
Chopped Tomato	1 No.
Turmeric Powder	Pinch
Green Chilly	2 Nos.
Pappad	3 Nos.
Ginger	1/4 inch
Water	1 cup
Salt	To taste

To Temper:

Coriander Leaf	2 Twigs
Curry Leaf	1 Twig
Cumin Seeds	1/2 spoon
Red Chilly	1 No.
Mustard	1 spoon
Oil	2 spoons

METHOD:
    Pressure cook all the ingredients under "All you Need"(except pappad) for about 3 to 4 whistles. Once the pressure releases, heat of spoon of oil in a pan. Add mustard and then cumin seeds. Now add chopped curry leaf, coriander leaf and red chilly (Optional), saute it well. Now pour the pressure coked items and let it get oil for 5 to 6 mins in medium flame and adjust the salt if required. Once done, put off the flame. Just a 10 mins efore your meal add the roken pappa/appalam, give hard stir and serve hot.

Note: You can also add grated coconut during your tempering.

♬ Sangeetha♡Nambi ♬

Carrot-Groundnut Kootu

     Generally i like to have raw carrots rather than having boiled/cooked ones. But still, as i need to feed my lil one, will add/prepare this veggie in my dish whether with/as rice or salad or poriyal etc.etc. So, that was a hurry-burry weekday, thought of preparing some healthy stir fry for my lunch but when i searched my fridge, i can find hardly 3 carrots which wont be sufficient for 4 ppl (including MIL). So, was totally blank and now suddenly an idea got flashed, i got some fresh raw groundnuts which was untouched for a week's time, just to compensate the quantity, thought why not to add the Groundnut to the Carrots. Yes, even i did it, OMG ! what a taste and really loved the boiled groundnut taste while munching it :) Its for ur views now !!!

ALL YOU NEED:

Carrot	3 Nos.
Groundnut	1/2 cup
Moong Dhall	4 spoons
Chopped Onion	1 No.
Grated Coconut	Handful
Corainder Leaf	2 Twigs
Dry Chilly	3 Nos.
Curry Leaf	1 Twig
Mustard	1 spoon
Salt	To Taste
Oil	1 spoon

METHOD:
     Pressure cook plain groundnut for 3 whistles. Do another pressure cooking moongdhall and Carrots for 4 whistles. Leave it aside. Now take a pan, heat a spoon of oil, allow mustard to splutters. Add in dry chillies, Chopped onion, curry leaf, coriander leaf, do a sauting for by adding pinch of salt. Once done, add the pressure cooked items, groundnut, carrot+moong dhall, do fine sauting until the excess water gets dried. Now add on the grated coconut, do a sauting for 5 mins. Now transfer to serving bowl and serve hot !

    Sending to the event CWS-Peanuts hosted by Priya.

♬ Sangeetha♡Nambi ♬

BottleGourd Kootu

     You can spot this veggie very rarely in my kitchen. I dont like it much because of its plain taste eventhough it has high nutritional value. Click here to know. But once in a while will choose to prepare this. Since i got bored of the ususal patterns, this time thought of doing it in different way for our lunch meal using healthy Moong dhall. Wow ! what a tasty recipe it is. Really myself and my lunch mate enjoyed much and got appreciation toooo.... :)

ALL YOU NEED:

Bottle Gourd	1/4 kg
Chopped Onion	1 No.
Turmeric Powder	Pinch
Curry Leaf	1 Twigs
Moong Dhall	1/4 cup
Mustard	1 spoon
Salt	To taste
Oil	1 spoon

To Grind

Grated Coconut	1/2 cup
Green Chilly	3 Nos.
Cumin Seeds	1 spoon

METHOD:
     Pressure cook Moong dhall by adding pinch of Turmeric Powder and Salt for a whistle of 3 o 4. Let it sit for a while. Keep a pan, heat a spoon of oil. Allow mustard to splutters, now add on the curry leaf, chopped onion, do a saute. Now add on the sliced Bottle Gourd and pour the grinded paste and pressure cooked Moong Dhall. Allow to boil until raw smell goes off. Now, serve hot.

♬ Sangeetha♡Nambi ♬

Beans dual gram Kootu

     When none of the gravy strikes my mind for my lunch, will prepare this kootu which will do dual role as Main Course as well as Sidedish. Yes, for hot steamed rice this will be a gravy and for Rasam or curd rice, this will be a sidedish. What a great (mokkai)idea know :P Atleast weekly once this type of kootu will be my main course. Even though it consume hardly 15 mins for preparation, it is one of the healthiest recipe which will be throughly enjoyed from Toddlers to Old age.

    Mostly i'll prepare Kottu using Bengal Gram or Toor Dhall or Moong Dhall. Not tried using dual dhall at a time. But one day am running out of Bengal Gram, so without any option, tried of adding Moong Dhall to compensate the Bengal gram shortage. Hmm... Its became my one of the tastiest recipe and as i added Moong dhall which looks same as a Dhall Masiyal. I think, this is my "Shortage/Running Out Of" recipe vaaaaaaarrrraaaaammmmmmmmmm (Even my previous post comes under same kinda)



ALL YOU NEED:

Chopped Beans	1/4 kg
Bengal Gram	3 spoons
Moong dhall	3 spoons
Chopped Onion	2 Nos.
Chopped Tomato	1 No.
Green Chilly	2 No.
Red Chilly(Optional)	2 Nos.
Grated Coconut	1/2 cup
Turmeric powder	Pinch
Corainder Leaf	1 Twig
Curry Leaf	2 Twigs
Mustard	1 spoon
Ginger (Optional)	Pinch
Salt	To Taste
Oil	To Temper

METHOD:
    Pressure cook chopped beans, chopped onion, chopped tomato, slited green chillies, Bengal Gram, Moong Dhall, smashed ginger, turmeric powder and salt for 10 mins in simmer. Heat a spoon of oil in a pan, add mustard, once it splutters, add curry leaf and if the pressure cooked item is lack of kaaram, add red chillies, saute it for a minute. Then pour the pressure cooked mixture, give a gentle stir. Now, add grated coconut and chopped corainder leaf, mix well with the kootu. Put off the flame. Its time to Serve now.

Note:If you are not a Ginger lover, just skip adding it.

♬ Sangeetha♡Nambi ♬

Quick Keerai Masiyal

     KEERAI, its my all time favorite. If my mom prepares Keerai dish, i'll be more excited to clean off the rice :D Even will take some keerai in a bowl and will have it as snack during evening time. Guess, u ppl think that am a "Saapaatu Seetha", Wondering abt this new word ??!! Female version of Saapatu Raman. He he he :) From this, you can understand how much am fond of keerai. :) With this note, we will go to the recipe.



INGREDIENTS
Sirukeerai - 1 bunch
Boiled Toor Dhall - 1 cup
Chopped Tomato - 1 (Big)
Chopped Onion - 2 Nos.
Green chilly - 4 Nos.
Garlic Cloves - 8 Nos.
Tamarind - Small Lemon Sized
Salt - To taste

To Garnish:
Mustard - 1 spoon
Cumin Seeds - 1/2 spoon
Red Chilly - 2 Nos.
Oil - To fry

METHOD:
     Take a cooker, add all the ingredients mentioned in "Ingredients" section except Toor Dhall. Pressure it for 6 to 7 mins. Pour it a wide-mouthened vessel, add boiled toor dhall and the garnished items and smash the keerai and its ingredients finely. Soooooooooo Simple one :)

Sirukeerai Kootu

    GREENS, most healthy and delicious veggie, which i like most among all. Especially my mom use to try this recipe during weekends so that i will have much amout. When this dish was prepared i wont take gravy for rice, instead will mix rice with this and which give a different and wowie taste. This is one of my favourite dish among my expert mom's dishes. So thought of posting this recipe to you all. Procedure for preparation comes here.

INGREDIENTS
Chopped Sirukeerai / Greens - A Bunch
Boiled Toor / Moong Dhall - 4 spoons
Chopped Onion - 2 Nos. (More onion add more taste)
Red chilly - 5 Nos.
Mustard - 1/2 spoon
Salt - To taste
Coconut Oil - 1 spoon
Oil

METHOD:
    Keep a pan, add a spoon of oil. Add mustard, allow it to splutter. Add chopped onion, salt, red chilly and saute it for 5 mins. Add chopped greens (or) keerai, splash some water and cook until the bunch content reduce into half. Once the keerai cooked well, add boiled dhall and mix keerai with the dhall. Before put off the heat, add 1 spoon of coconut oil and mix finely which adds more flavour.

Note: If coconut oil is not available, can also use grated coconut.

Cabbage Kootu - I

INGREDIENTS:
Cabbage - 1/4 kg
Bengal Gram or Kadalai paruppu - 4 to 5 spoons
Coconut - 4 to 5 pieces
Cumin Seeds - 1/2 spoon
Green chilly - 2 or 3
Chopped Onion - 1
Chopped Tomato - 1
Mustard
Coriander and Curry Leaf
Oil and Salt to taste



METHOD:
    Boil cabbage in cooker along with Bengal gram and salt for 5 to 7 mins. Keep pan, pour 2 spoons of oil, add mustard and allow it to splutter. Fry chopped onion, tomato, curry leaf and coriander. Meantime, grind the items coconut, cumin seeds and green chilly finely. Pour the grinded item into the pan, allow it to boil until the raw smell of chilly and cumin seed evaporates. Add boiled cabbage into the mixture along with salt as per the taste.