BM #105: Week 3, Day 3
Theme : Easy side dishes for rice/roti

This is yet another of my mother in law’s recipe. Again I took stepwise pictures when she was cooking to make my life easier :-). Kootu is one of the regular dishes our households. My grandma used to make it and my in laws also make it regularly. It’s one of those dishes I used to hate as a kid, but have developed a taste as an adult.

Kootu for most part, uses up leftover bits and pieces of veggies, but for this particular kootu, we bought veggies specifically for it. Amma had prepared it recently when we were visiting our brother in law at Texas. She had prepared it for a crowd of 12 plus people. It was really delicious and I asked her to prepare it again when she was visiting us in Jersey.

Read on for the recipe.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 chow chow/ chayote, diced
• 2 medium carrots , diced
• 1/4 cup moong dal
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• Salt as needed
• Water as needed
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 3 dry red chilies
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoon oil
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon urad dal

Method:

In a thick bottom saucepan, add the diced carrots, chow chow, moong dal, turmeric powder and salt.

Add enough water so that it is just a little short of covering the veggies. Mix everything well. Turn on the heat.

Let the veggies and dal cook.

Meanwhile, grind a teaspoon of jeera/cumin seeds, 3 red chilies (or adjust per taste) and half cup shredded coconut.

Grind to a smooth paste. Set aside.

When the vegetables are cooked and the dal is also done, add the ground coconut paste.

Let the kootu boil for 5 minutes. Taste test and adjust seasonings. Turn off the heat.

Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a small pan. Add 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds and once it stops popping, add a spoon of broken urad dal. Wait for the dal to turn golden brown.

Add the tadka to the kootu. Serve with rice and papad.

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