ASH GOURD KOOTTU (restaurant style)

Well...........recently, in a restaurant, I tasted this koottu , served in a thali meal, and I tell you, the taste was divine!!!
Then, I scrutinized  the recipe, trying to guess what all could have gone inside this tasty dish, mentally visualized how the recipe would have been made......came home, tried it, viola!!!! it was the same....feel so happy to share this wonder-koottu recipe with you all. It is a nice twist to the usual mundane south indian koottu varieties.
It has the low-cal ash gourd/white pumpkin, protein rich split mung dhal and black eyed chick peas/karamani, lycopene rich tomato, and cholesterol reducer pearl onion. So, what more you need????
And, this is a nice side for chapathis  also.
This happens to be my 300th recipe.....thank you all!!!
Please check out my Karthigai deepam recipes here
You may please refer here for my other varieties of koottu.

Ingredients

Ash gourd (pooshinikkai) - 2 cups, chopped

Split mung dhal - 3/4 cup, soaked for 1/2 hour, then pressure cooked

Karamani (black eyed chick peas ) - 1/2 cup, soaked for 1/2 hour and pressure cooked

Tomato - 1, chopped

Pearl onions - 7-8, chopped

Curry leaves - handful

Salt to taste

To grind

Coconut - grated or chopped 1/4 cup

Jeera - 1 tsp

Green chillies - 2-3

To season

Coconut oil - 2 tsps

Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp 

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Broken urad dhal - 1 tsp

Recipe cuisine: South Indian; Category: Lunch/dinner

Prep time: 10 mts; Cooking time: 15 mts

Serves 3

Ash gourd, tomato and onion chopped and kept ready, loaded into a pan with 2 cups water and set to boil, after they are half boiled, salt added

In the picture below, you can see the soaked dhal and chick peas pressure cooked, coconut, green chillies and jeera loaded into the blender jar, and then, the ground paste 

Picture below shows dhal and black eyed chickpeas being added to the cooked ashgourd, then the ground paste added, a lavish heap of curry leaves added

Coconut oil getting heated in the seasoning pan, mustard seeds and broken urad dhal added, and on top of the curry leaves, add the asafoetida powder, and pour the seasonings. Mix well.

Serve with soft, hot phulkas.

This post first appeared in www.malpatskitchen.com

Notes

* Any other vegetable can be made into a koottu in the same method.

*Instead of karamani / black eyed beans, any other legume can be used too.

Categories: Koottu Varieties