Kootu means a semi liquid curry, cooked with lentils and vegetables. In south India, this is one of the dish served as a must in marriges. There are 3-4 types of kootu variations, commonly in use at south Indian kitchens. This is commonly cooked with water vegetables like, white pumkin, bottle gourd, ridge gourd, snake gourd, plaintain stem, plaintain flower and also with brinjal sometimes.
Ingredients:
1. Chopped white pumpkin - 2 cups
2. Channa dhal / split peas - 2 tbs
3. Regular refined oil / coconut oil - 2 tsp
4. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
5. Hing powder - 1 tsp
To grind:
1. Coconut grated, freshly - 1 tbs
2. Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
3. Red chilli - 1
Seasoning:
1. Jeera - 1 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
3. Curry leaves - 4-5 leaves
4. Urud dhal - 1 tsp
Method:
1. Heat a pan on the stove with 2 tsp of oil. Add mustard seeds, jeera, urud dhal and curry leaves. Once they got popped, add 1 1/2 cups of water and allow to boil.
2. In the mean white, clean and wash the channa dhal. Add it to the boiling water. You can even soak channa dhal 1/2 hr before to reduce the cooking time.
3. Once the channa dhal is 3/4 cooked, add chopped white pumpkin to the boiling water. Make sure the pumpkin is chopped into bigger chunks. Because pumpkin cooks fast and gets smashed.
4. Add freshly grated coconut, coriander seeds, red chilli into the blender and grind it to a fine paste by adding few spoons of water.
5. Add the coconut mixture to the boiling pumpkin gravy and stir. Add salt, turmeric powder, hing powder and stir again. Keep stirring then and there, so that the spice gets absorbed by all the vegetable chunks.
6. Allow to cook, until the pumpkin and the dhal cooks to the right stage and the spices gets coated well with the vegetable. The consistency should be in semi liquid stage. If you want it to be thick, thats also fine. Keep strring in the stove, until it gets thick without sticking to the pan.
7. Transfer it to a serving bowl. Serve hot as a side dish or with white rice.
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