Palakura Pappu

Like many of you, even I have learnt cooking only after marriage. When I came to US, I had my mom write all the recipes step by step for me. I used to follow the recipe accurately and never altered any part of it. Be it the ingredients or the cooking time as I was scared of the dish turning out to be a flop. As my efficiency in cooking grew so did my braveness in trying new dishes and altering the recipes. Palakura pappu (spinach dal) is one of those recipes. My mom adds tomato to this dish but I sometime make the palakura pappu without tomato. I have heard from people that the combination of spinach and tomato are not good for health as they together in long run might form kidney stones. I am not sure how correct this is but doesn’t add tomatoes to palakura pappu most of the times. I do make an exception once in a while. So here is palakura pappu without tomato.

Required Ingredients:
Toor dal: 1 cup
Spinach: 1 bunch
Green Chilies: 4-5
Onion: 1
Tamarind: small marble sized
Turmeric: 1/4 tsp
Salt: To taste

For seasoning:
Mustard Seeds: 1 tsp
Cumin: 1tsp
Urad adal: 1tsp
Chenna dal: 1tsp
Curry leaves: 5-6
Red chilies (dry): 2-3
Garlic: 2 cloves cut into small pieces

Method:
•Wash and drain the toor dal.
•Wash and cut the spinach.
•Take toor dal, spinach, green chilies, tamarind and half onion in a pressure cooker and cook until the dal reaches fall apart stage.Usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes in a pressure cooker.
•Once the valve pressure is released, remove the lid and add mash the dal to soft consistency with a pappu gutti (wooden masher).
•Add salt, tamarind and turmeric to the mashed dal and let it cook till it reaches the required consistency.
•Then do the seasoning with Mustard Seeds, Cumin, Urad dal, Chenna dal, Curry leaves, Red chilies, Garlic. After these seeds splutter add the remaining onion to it.
•After the onions turn golden brown, add the seasoning into pappu.


Enjoy the tasty palakura pappu with rice and a dollop of ghee!!!