Toor daal / Kandhi Pappu Paratha

This is a dish I found to be very tasty when there is left out dals. I had some left over mudha pappu. Thought to make parathas. Instead of stuffing the daal mixture, I just added this to the wheat flour, mixed every thing and kneaded into soft dough same as the roti dough. Fry them with ghee and serve them with spicy red chilli pickle.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour – 2 cups

Cooked Tour daal – 1 cup

Ajwain / Carom seeds / Vaamu – ½ tsp

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Salt
Oil / ghee to fry the parathas

Cooked Toor daal / Mudha pappu and Wheat flour

Method:

Mix the wheat flour, cumin seeds, ajwain seeds and salt in a bowl, add gradually the cooked toor dal / Kandi pappu and knead everything into smooth dough (add water if necessary)..Keep aside for 30 minutes...

Make 10- 12 medium sized balls from the dough, dust the balls with enough flour and roll them into round parathas using rolling pin.

Heat few drops of oil in a tawa, gently place the flattened paratha, cook the paratha on both sides, drizzle oil if needed. 

Serve with any sort of spicy side dish..

Daalcha

This is a vegetarian version of Daalcha which brings a completely new scrumptious flavour in lentils. Lentils are cooked along with egg plant and tomato and sauted in cashew nuts masala. You can substitute vegetables with meet as well.

Daalcha

I learned this recipe from my sister-in-law during my last visit to India.

Ingredients:

Toor daal – 1 cup
Brinjal / egg plant – small variety – 4
Milk – ¼ cup
Cashew nuts – 4-5
Tomato – 2
Onion – 2 (Cut 1 into chunks and 1 into thin slices)
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Chilli powder – 2 tsp
Green chilli – 3 slit length wise
Garam masala – ½ tsp
Tamarind – ½ lemon size

Method:

Wash and soak toor daal in 2 cups of water
Cut 1 tomato and egg plants into large chunks and add to the daal.
Add ¼ tsp of turmeric and boil them till soft.

Daal, Egg plant and tomato

Heat a pan. Add milk, cashews, onion and tomato chunks and cook until the milk gets evaporated.

Grind everything into smooth paste.

Heat apan, add 2 tbsp of oil. Add thinly sliced onion, green chilli and ginger garlic paste. Fry
everything. Add coriander powder, chilli powder and garam masala. To this add the ground paste
and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the mixture to the cooked daal. Add tamarind water and bring it to boil.

A nice companion for pilau rice.

Panjabi kichidi

Kichidi - I call this as comfort food. Comfort to eat as it melts in our mouth and comfort to cook as you don't need to cook any other side dishes for this. Pack of proteins.

Ingredients:

Rice – 1 cup
Moong daal/ Split green gram skinned - 1/2 cup
Toor daal / Kandi pappu – ½ cup
Onion – 1 small cut into small pieces
Potato – 1 medium cut into cubes
Peanuts – 2 tbsp
Green chilli – 2-3 slit them
Red chilli – 2
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Cumin powder – ½ tsp
Garam masala – ¼ tsp
Salt
Oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

Wash and soak the rice and daals
Heat a pressure pan with oil
Add Onion, green chilli, red chilli and fry for a minute.
Add peanuts and potato and fry for 2 more minutes.
Add the soaked rice and daals

Add salt, turmeric, cumin powder and garam masala.
Momentarily stir everything and add 4 cups of water and pressure cook till 1 whistle.

Note: If you do not have pressure cooker, use any normal pan and cook the ingredients until soft..

Cabbage with toor daal

This is a nice recipe with the combination of daal and vegetable. This can be served as a side dish or as a main dish.

Ingredients:

Shredded Cabbage – 2 cups

Toor dal – ½ cup

Grated Coconut (Fresh)– ¼ cup

Green chilli - 4 – 5

Salt

For Seasoning;

Red chilli (Dry) – 1 or 2

Curry leaves – 1 string

Mustard – ½ tsp

Cumin / Jeera – ½ tsp

Oil – 2 tbsp

Boiled toor daal, cabbage, fresh coconut

Wash and soak the toor daal in 1 cup of water for 30 minutes and pressure cook until 1 whistle or cook normally until it is just done and should not be too mushy and be able to press in between the fingers.

Boiled toor daal

Heat a pan with 2 tbsp of oil. When it is hot enough, add the entire seasoning items Red chilli, mustard, cumin, curry leaves one after the other.

Slit the green chillies into 2 to 4 pieces and add to the seasoning and fry for a minute.

Now add the shredded cabbage, salt and turmeric powder and stir momentarily. Cover the lid and allow cabbage to cook with the steam itself. No need to add water.

When the cabbage is almost done, add the boiled toor daal and grated coconut and mix every thing and cook for few minutes and remove from the fire.

This goes well with rice or roti or even with pita bread.