Vegetables & Lentils with Ground Spices
A lot of my recent posts have been bookmarked recipes, or the posts I have been using from the draft. With this heat, I have to reduce my time in front of the stove, doing a lot of salads, fresh fruits & quick grilling of fish or chicken. This is one nice recipe to use the seasonal veggies or may be to clean up the refrigerator, before you make your next grocery trip.
In the Eastern regions (Bengal & Assam) of India where I grew up, there are a variety of ways to cook up a mixture of vegetables; The procedure sound almost similar, but different spices are used. A few examples would be “Chorchori” (dry fry where the vegetables remain distinct) or “Ghonto” (almost same as the chorchori but this one is stirred a lot while cooking) or “Labra“. While growing up I saw my mom use up the last bit of vegetables, the little of this & that left in the corners into one of the above mentioned dishes – not that they would not be cooked up with freshly bought vegetables. Nothing would be thrown away…
I do the same thing now, cook up a medley of veggies, mostly seasonal as I get them, with different spices to add some variety. My kids are good & will eat all the vegetables I cook without a whine. I saw a recipe in Tasty Palettes, & cooked my vegetables using Suganya’s idea that day itself.. a little differently than hers & have cooked this quite a few times since then.
While Suganya cooks her lentils/dal first, I have cooked mine along with the vegetables, leaving the lentils unmushed & a bit crunchy, as my mom would cook moong with spinach (I will post that later). I love ginger & added some ginger in mine. The roasted spice powder have been unmodified & I have used her recipe. This recipe makes a complete meal when served with rice or flat breads.
Vegetables & Lentils with Ground Spices
Ingredients: (Serves 2)
- 1/3 cup Yellow Moong dal
- 3 cups Mixed vegetables, cubed (Colored peppers, potato, peas, zucchini, squash, white pumpkin, carrots, lima beans, beans..whatever you want to add)
- 1 Teaspoon Turmeric
- 1/2 Teaspoon grated Fresh Ginger
- Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Mustard seeds
- Few Curry leaves
- 3 Teaspoons Oil, divided
Spice Mixture
- 5 Dry Red chillies (more or less as per your heat tolerance)
- 1/2 Teaspoon Black pepper
- 1 Tablespoon Urad dal (the Split Dehusked ones)
- 2 Tablespoons Grated coconut
- A Pinch of Asafoetida/Hing
- 7-8 Curry leaves
Preparation:
To make the Spiced Powder:Heat a teaspoon of oil.
Roast red chillies, black pepper and urad dal until golden. Cool them & grind along with coconut, asafoetida and curry leaves to a smooth paste. Set aside.
Cooking the Vegetables with the Lentils:
Heat 1 Teaspoon oil in a pan. Add the Moong dal & stir fry till they are golden. Add the vegetables, the grated ginger, turmeric & salt to the pan & toss everything together; Saute them for about 2-3 minutes, add half cup of water & cover the pan till the vegetables are cooked through. The vegetables should be cooked, but not mushy; they should be still be holding their shapes.
Now add the ground spice mixture and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
Heat the last one teaspoon of oil. Add the mustard seeds & curry leaves to the oil. Switch off the heat immediately once the mustard & the leaves start to splutter. Finish off by adding spluttered mustard seeds & leaves to the cooked vegetables in the pan.
Serve hot with rice or fresh flat breads.
I have used leafy greens in this recipe a few times & they taste good too. A whole some healthy meal in a bowl…proteins & all the nutrition you need from the lovely vegetables all combined with the very flavorful freshly ground spices! The best way to enjoy this dish is to buy seasonal & locally grown vegetables which are way cheaper & fresh than the exotic off season veggies, or just the right way to use up the little bit of everything that hide in fridge crying to be used, without tossing them out. Eat healthy without waste! Sending this to HOTM hosted by Ilva of Lucullian Delights; the theme is Budget Friendly Foods.
Related Posts:
Bitter Melon & Potato Stir Fry with Poppy Seeds
Tags: Asafoetida, beans, budget recipe, carrot, coconut, cooking dal, cooking lentils, curry, curry leaves, easy side recipe, eating healthy, eggless recipe, eggless side, fresh spice mix, fridge cleaning, ginger, gluten free recipe, hing, Indian recipe, indian side dish, indian side recipe, Kootu, leaves for seasoning, lima beans, mixed vegetable curry, mixed vegetables, moong dal, potato, roasted spices, seasonal vegetables, side recipe, side with rice, sides, spiced powder, squash, stir, summer veggies, vegetables & lentils, vegetarian, wheat less, yellow lentils, zucchini
July 26th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Really looking forward to trying this, looks delicious and hearty! I love new vegetarian recipes for my husband.
Thank you!
July 26th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
That looks beautifully healthy and delicious Soma!
July 26th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
i guess this is very similar to the kootu that we make, except we add lesser lentils and more coconut
July 26th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Similar to Poricha kuzhambu! Looks great:)
July 26th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
I make one with veggies nad dal that is called the dalma in orissa … but it has hardly any spices.
Black pepper sounds good in this.
July 26th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Ah this is such a comfort food, would love to have this with steaming rice!
July 27th, 2009 at 3:39 am
love these veggie dal combos…sounds delish!! even I posted a veggie dal combo – dhansak today!
July 27th, 2009 at 4:14 am
As you mentioned we too make it with spinach and daal..but this is too healthy and tempting to try..hey i love that crunchy feel too
July 27th, 2009 at 7:13 am
hi soma,
yummy comfort food! perfect with rice and some papad
July 27th, 2009 at 8:47 am
I’d love a plate of this right now.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I could eat a big bowl of this just by itself! I like my lentils un-mashed too..
July 27th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Nutritious, delicious, vibrant lentils….just the way I would eat it and even fussy kids too!!
July 27th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
This is so very good ! a perfect example non-fussy delicious and healthy yet simplest to the core, type of cooking !
July 27th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
That is great, so healthy and anyone would love it!
July 27th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
That looks fantastic. I just ate but now I want to eat again. Great recipe.
July 27th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Lentils with veggies are so healthy and so tasty! Your dish looks very inviting. By the way, did you like kisir?
July 27th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
How colorful and healthy that dish looks. I love combining lentils with veggies too– an easy way to sneak more nutrition in, as well as add more deliciousness.
July 27th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
This is to me is comfort food.Great pic!
July 27th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Lovely as always. Suganya’s recipes are always an inspiration.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
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July 27th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
sensational comforting meal soma. a must try!
July 28th, 2009 at 3:48 am
Truly delicious meal Soma.It was nice writeup regarding the various ways the veggies are cooked .The combo is very filling and perfect.
July 28th, 2009 at 4:44 am
Oh wow…that an filling and satisfying meal……love the medley of veggies….yummy…
July 28th, 2009 at 5:07 am
The bowl is so pretty and looks good with combination of vegetables, lentils and Rice. Making the masala of coconut and redchillies reminds me so much of Konkani cooking.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:48 am
What a nice hearty meal
July 28th, 2009 at 5:53 am
Curry looks delicious & very healthy..love all ingredients that u used
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July 28th, 2009 at 7:20 am
The veggies and lentils look delightful!
July 28th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Lovely & healthy meal … Nice picture ….
July 28th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
The spice mixture sounds delicious! And, the dish looks so great served next to rice. Great veggie combination.
July 28th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
India is THE place for all these flavorful and outstanding vegan dishes.
You do not only eat with the tummy also with your eyes …this is so beautiful
Cheers,
Gera
July 28th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
oh wow look at the colors of that curry! When I make curry it’s usually pretty ugly, just splotches of red and brown…but yours look gorgeous!
July 28th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Looks very interesting – somewhat like the “kootu” we make….the veggies look so fresh!
July 28th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
I enjoyed your descriptions of the different cooking styles. Looking forward to you moong + spinach recipe!
July 31st, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Looks lovely, Soma.
In our traditional cooking, we do cook vegetables like this with the moong dal. Only we use any vegetable and not a mixture and the spice mixture is a little different and not powdered.
August 5th, 2009 at 8:40 am
That’s an interesting way of cooking the moong dal. I personally prefer moong dal to be more cooked and softer, but I must try it this way. I also use a lot of vegetables in my dal. You can see pictures on my blog, if you are interested: http://mangosoup.blogspot.com/2009/08/courgette-and-tomato-moong-dal.html
August 5th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
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