Vegetable kootu with kootu podi

23 Comments / Gravy (Curry and daals) / By

If you are a blogger, you probably know the Arusuvai friendship chain started by Latha and Lakshmi of The Yum blog. It is basically an event where you send a “secret ingredient” to some of your friends. They cook something delicious with the ingredient and blog about it. This chain which was very popular among the bloggers in India, was started in US by Latha of Masala magic.

I have been reading about this for sometime now, but didn’t exactly know all the details. One fine day, I got a mail from Bee of Jugalbandi asking if I would like to get a surprise package from her. Well, who says no to such a delicious offer? I was eagerly waiting for the package and on a Tuesday received a lovely package in the mail. It had a very fragrant kootu podi, Bee’s favorite California chocolate, a beautiful purse from India and peanut chikki :). Wow!!! I can’t thank you guys enough. It reached me at a time when I was so upset about whole blogging and was thinking to do some drastic changes on this blog. It definitely made me feel very good. Thanks Bee and Jai.

I would also thank Maya for offering me a secret ingredient. I was not sure if it was the same ingredient which is circulated or different one. Now that I know what it is, I feel bad that I let down one more great offer.

Continuing the chain, I am passing a secret ingredient to Shn of Mishmash, Manjula of Dalitoy, Manasi of A cook at heart.

According to Wiki,

Kootu is a Tamil dish, common in both Tamil Nadu and South India. Kootus are essentially vegetable and lentil dishes which are semi-solid, i.e., less aqueous than sambhar, but more so than dry curries. Rice and kootu is a common and simple Tamil meal. In Tamil cuisine kootus are considered substitutes for both curries and sambhar.

I have heard of kootu before and also prepared few different types. But frankly speaking, I never tried to understand what a kootu is. My experiments were mainly the Kannada version of kootus with very different spices. After reading the above definition from wiki, I thought of making something like a sambar with it. It came out to be very delicious, not as hot as sambar, but very fragrant and tasty.

Some more kootu recipes can be found at Jugalbandi, Sailu’s food, Mane adige, Masala magic, Vindu.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup toor dal
1 tea spn kootu podi
2 tbl spns frsh/frozen coconut
1 cup vegetables – green beans, carrot, cauliflower, onion, potato, eggplant(brinjal), tomato etc
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
5-6 curry leaves
A pinch asafoetida
A pinch turmeric
1/4 tea spn tamarind extract(optional)
Oil
Salt

Method:
Cook dal with turmeric till it is mushy. Cook vegetables (If using cooker vessels, keep dal in bottom most pan and vegetables in topmost).
Grind coconut, tamarind with kootu podi.
Add the ground paste to dal and vegetables. Cook for about 7-8mins.
Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves, asafoetida. Pour this over kootu. Serve hot with rice.

Serves : 3-4
Preparation time : 25mins

23 thoughts on “Vegetable kootu with kootu podi”

  4. pelicano

    I’m glad you tried this dish Shilpa- it often graces my table and each time is very different, depending upon the veggies used… some people add a little gur to balance the tamarind, and some also add fine-chopped dill to the mix- optional, but good if you like this herb!

    Reply
  7. Nupur

    It is really fun to see what each “secret” ingredient is. Kootu and kootu podi is totally new to me…your dish looks delicious!

    Reply
  11. Mythreyee

    I too have kootu podi ready in my pantry always. Great for vella pooshanikaai kootu, beans kootu etc. Adding many vegetables to the kootu is a wonderful idea. Thanks!

    Reply
  13. Kiran

    Shilpa, Why were you upset? You have a wonderful blog, really nice pictures, awesome recipes and even though I dont know you personally, you come across as this honest, down to earth, sweet person thru ur blogs….I made your chana ghashi yesterday, it turned out to be amazing!

    Shilpa: Thanks Kiran :). I am over it now.

    Reply
  14. Sig

    Hey Shilpa, chin up… Don’t worry about the idiots who leave hurtful comments, they are just jealous and have nothing better to do than spread their venum around. I had some of those recently too, and my response to all of them was to go get a life… You have such an amazing blog with wonderful recipes, don’t let these people get to you…

    Shilpa: Thanks Sig :). I am over it now and next time will be more careful not to let it hurt me.

    Reply
  16. Ashwini

    Hi

    It is really very easy to prepare dish.

    Thanks for posting such easy dishes. Really useful for beginners.

    Regards
    Ashwini

    Reply
  20. trupti shiraguppi

    i am happy , that non- southindians can learn the core method of south indian (karnataka recepies) and can become an expert. I will definetly tell my friends to blog this wongwerful site. Thank u very much!

    Reply

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