Poricha Kuzhambu

Poricha Kuzhambu is a classic south-Indian mixed vegetable stew served over plain steamed rice. This comforting dish, spiced with urid dal, pepper & coconut is also called as poricha (means 'fried' in Tamil) kootu (means 'mixed' in Tamil). Fried urid dal, pepper and fresh coconut are ground into a paste and is added to the cooked vegetables along with cooked lentils.

I love to have this as a side for paruppu sadham (dal rice). This is something that I grew up on and so for me, nothing can really beat this combo. This can also be served as a side for roti/ any kind of bread!

Basic Info

Complexity - Medium

Prep time - 20 mins

Cook time - 20 mins

Serves - 3-4

Ingredients

Mixed vegetables, cut into smaller pieces - about 3 cups (I used carrot, potato, beans, cabbage, peas)

Sambar powder - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
Cooked & mashed toor dal - 1/2 cup

Roast & grind

Urid dal - 1.5 tbsp
Hing - 1 small piece
Red chillies - 3-4 nos
Pepper corn - 1/2 tsp
Grated coconut - 1.5 tbsp

Tempering
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Split urid dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Method

Add 1.5 cups of water to a thick bottomed sauce-pan. Once water starts to boil, add all the vegetables, turmeric powder, salt, sambar powder. Once vegetables are soft & cooked, add the ground masala (paste from 'Roast & grind'). Stir often to make sure that the masala doesn't settle at the bottom of the vessel and burn the kootu. Add required water to bring kootu to required consistency. Couple of minutes after adding the masala & water, add mashed toor dal. Let it boil for a min and then, remove the pan from heat.

Add mustard seeds to a tsp of oil and let it splutter. Then, add urad dal and roast it until brown. Add them to poricha kozhambu and garnish with curry leaves.

Tips

- For poricha kozhambu, do not use vegetables that gets mushy after cooking like eggplant/spinach/ash gourd etc.

- Drumstick adds a nice flavor to kootu. So, toss a few of them (cut into small pieces of an inch long) along with the other vegetables.

- Drumstick/spinach/cabbage can be used independently to make poricha kozhambu of its own (by not mixing them with other vegetables. Recipe remains the same.

- If cooked with moong dal to a thicker consistency, this can also be used as a side for chapathi.

Events:

Linking this to "CWS - Peas" by Priya of Priya's Easy and Tasty recipes.