A vegetarian food blog with unique and interesting recipes from all over the world mainly focused on South Indian Cuisine.
I always look for mealtime sides that I can serve along with both rice and roti. And here is one such recipe. Today I am sharing my favorite brussels sprouts masala kootu – A traditional no onion no garlic kootu recipe made in Instant Pot with the hint of cinnamon and cardamom and of course with fresh ground coconut-cumin paste. Check out this quick one-pot kootu recipe with step-wise pictures.
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All we need after the delicious Diwali goodies are the simple food. Today I am going to share one such recipe. It is the Green Tomato Kootu or the Raw Tomato gravy with coconut, or as we Thakkali Kai Kootu as, we say in Tamil. It’s a simple kootu prepared with green/raw tomatoes, moong dal and with fresh ground coconut masala. Wondering what makes this kootu special? Read on further to know why it’s unique and also for the step by step picture recipe for this green tomato kootu.
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Finally a Vazhaithandu/Plantain Stem recipe on my blog. :-) I am super happy to share one of my favorite recipes today – it’s the vazhaithandu or the plantain stem mor kootu, a close cousin of Avial. For avial, we use mixed vegetables, but for this, all you need is plantain stem. With the goodness of yogurt, coconut and coconut oil, this rich and creamy kootu is sure a relish.
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In the recent past, I am noticing the gaining popularity of the Paleo diet which intrigued me to research more about it. So what’s paleo diet? To put it in simple words, it’s the caveman diet or Paleolithic diet or stone-age diet. This diet includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, oils and of course meat while it doesn’t include any processed foods and also grains, legumes etc. A diet without grains and legumes? Yes wiki puts it right; the diet is based on avoiding not just modern processed foods, but rather the foods that humans began eating after the Neolithic Revolution when humans transitioned from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to settled agriculture.
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Today’s recipe is going to be a simple day-to-day rice accompaniment and one of the common and most popular side dish that you can see in a typical Tamil Nadu Thali – Kootu. So here I am presenting a simple, no onion no garlic, green and purple cabbage kootu prepared with fresh ground coconut, curry leaves and cilantro masala.
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Vallarai Keerai Kootu is a gravy prepared with moong dal and spinach(Indian Pennywort) with fresh ground coconut masala. This can be served as a rice accompaniment and also as a side for sambar and rasam rice. Vallarai is spinach variety popularly known as Gotu Kola and its botanical name is Centella Asiatica.
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Murungai Kai kootu is a rice accompaniment or it can be a meal on its own when served with rice and fryums. Like all the other kootu recipes, this recipe also uses dal and I used the moong dal, and along with fresh ground masala with coconut, I used about a tsp of sambar powder and tomatoes to add that extra kick. I prepared this in slightly thicker consistency according to our preference.
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Keerai kadaiyal is yet another signature recipe of Tamil Nadu cuisine and I wanted to try this in clay pot / Manchatti as we say in Tamil. I went with regular spinach that we get here in US (pasalai keerai) but this can be prepared with any greens that you get. It is a simple steamed spinach which is then mashed with Thayir Mathu / Buttermilk churner (see notes below) and tempered with spices. I am super glad that the Indian stores here started to carry Thandu keerai / Amaranth leaves and also Manathakkali leaves/garden huckleberry.
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We are in the last week of this month’s blogging marathon. The 4th weeks theme is our own. So I picked the post partum recipes. I really like out traditional food and recipes, especially for the postpartum. The reason for using specific ingredient is really amazing and how they food as medicine is fascinating. I can keep on talking about this theme and process. You can see my thoughts on Pathiya samayal here.
So the first dish, that we are going to see is Peerkangai/Ridgegourd kootu without chillies and coconut. Red chillies increases the body heat, so they don’t use it for three months after delivery. Pepper takes the place of red chilly and they don’t use coconut also. The food needs to as light as possible, so as to prevent colic in babies. So here is the recipe
Submitting this post for Blogging Marathon #43 – A 3 day marathon for 4 weeks
Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#43
This recipe is a simple jackfruit seed kootu or gravy with brinjals and fresh ground coconut masala. One of our friends gave us loads of Jackfruit seed (palakottai). So obviously it’s going to be palakottai recipes week. :-) This is a great side for rice and also a great accompaniment.
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Happy 4th of July. :-)
This is again a traditional dish made out of tender ash gourd or tender pumpkin. Its very simple but very delicious. Coconut oil and cooking the veggie in the milk differs it from other kootus. You don’t need any jeera for this. You need tender ash gourd (Parangi/Poosani kottai) for this recipe.
Ingredients:
Tender ash gourd (medium size) – 1
Milk (2%) – 1 cup
Water 1 cup
Salt – 1.5 tsp
For Grinding:
Grated coconut – 1 cup
Green chillies – 2
For tempering:
Regular cooking oil – 2 tsps
Coconut oil – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds : 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 strand
Steps:
Papaya trees are very common in my native and green papayas or the raw papayas are commonly used in cooking. We can prepare regular kootu, kai/poriyal with the green papaya. Papaya is known for its Vitamin A content and here is a simple kootu. Raw papaya tastes pretty much like chow-chow/Cayote. And I prepare this kootu same like spinach or chow-chow kootu. The only difference here is that I add onions. But that’s completely optional.
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Erissery/Yeriseri – A simple onam sadya delicacy from God’s Own Country – Kerala. Today I am sharing the Yam and Plantain Erissery with fresh ground coconut masala. This curry can be served along with rice or as a side dish also. Here is my version of vaazhai-senai yeriseri.
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Vellai Poosanikai or Pooshanikai has lot of English names – Winter Melon, Ash gourd or the simple English translation as White pumpkin. This veggie is unique as it can be used for preparing sambhar, kootu, dry curry or kai and even for the dessert. I love this veggie in sambhar but my personal preference is kootu.
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This kootu is very similar to Keerai kootu. Instead of keerai, we are just gonna add Chow-Chow
For Spinach, we dont need to pressure cook. For chow-chow, pressure cook the chopped chow-chow along with moong dhal. Let it cook for 2 whistles.
This zucchini kootu or dal or pappu is prepared with moong dal and zucchini (obviously) and this goes well with rice and roti. For me kitchen is a place for trying out different food experiments. This recipe is from one such experiment. When I was making poori Masala, I was wondering what if substitute zucchini in place of potatoes. Why not? I tried with just two variations. Usually for poori Masala, I don’t add tomatoes. During my first attempt I added tomatoes and also coconut to get feel of usual kootu. It did came out good but it didn’t become a real big hit. So tried one more variation and this turned out to be a hit. In fact hubby mentioned it was like Saravana Bhavan Style kootu. ;-) ;-)
Ok here is the recipe,
Ingredients:
Steps:
Zucchini kootu/dhal is ready.
Notes:
