PUDALANKAI (SNAKEGAURD) KOOTU
Snakegaurd is a type of vegetable which is greenish whitish in color and tastes really very good. Kootu is kind of a preparation which is made with lentils and cooked in semisolid way. So the vegetable and Lentils cooked together and made semisolid by adding coconut paste, and that is kootu. I prefer Kootu for kids because, you can just make white rice and mix with this kootu and feed them, it is healthy and also very tasty. You need not make any sambhar or rasam for this.
I have made lots of kootu, you can make kootu with Poosanikai(Pumpkin) Kootu, Cabbage Kootu, winter melon (Parangikai) kootu, lot more. They can be just used as a suace for the rice or even you can use for Indian flat Bread. It will not be spicy, so good for kids to eat. And also it can be mashed easily, because these vegetables after it is cooked they are so soft.
Lets see how to make them...
Cuisine : South Indian
Preparation time : 30 mins
Cooking time : 10 mins
Course : Side dish
Main Ingredients : Snake Gourd / Podalankai
Ingredients :
Snake Gourd: 2 cup peeled and chopped into cube
Coconut - 3 tbsp
Channa dal - 1 tbsp
Chili - 3 nos
Onion - 1/2 cup
Cumin/Jeera - 1 tsp
Seasoning - 1 tbsp
Salt as required
Curry leaves
Preparation :
- The first thing we have to do is cook the vegetable, Podalankai. So when you cook Podalankai, you can add the lentils So we are gonna pressure cook Snake gourd and channa dal( Broken chickpea). Add water till the it covers the vegetable and lentils.
- When you are using the pressure cooker don't put those vegetables and lentils directly in the pressure cooker. You can add all the vegetables in a small vessel. Then add water to the pressure cooker and the drop this vessel to it, close the pressure cooker with its lid and put the whistle on.
- Let the pressure cooker cook for like 10 minutes or till two whistle. Then it will be nice and soft.
- Now wait till the pressure is released and then open the cooker.
- Now you can take a pan, keep it in the stove and turn on the heat to medium. You can use stainless steel or hard anodized or even not stick but you cannot use iron because we are going to add coconut to the kootu and it will also be watery so you cannot use iron skillet. Iron skillet can be only used for dry.
- When the pan is hot enough add 1 tbsp of oil, then add kaduku/ Mustard and ullundham parupu Split white gram. Then add curry leaves too.
- Now when it starts to crackle add the cooked snake gourd and channa dal/split chick pea.
- Let it cook for a while, if needed add little water. But it wont be necessary because it will have enough water in it.
- Now grind coconut, onion, cumin, and green chili. It should belike a fine paste, you can add little water to if you want.
- Add the ground paste to the pan, when the Snake Gourd is really cooking with the paste and will get a thick saucy feel.
- Now it is time to add salt to the dish and at last even more curry leaves
Serve it hot with rice or chapathi
Serving per recipe : 2
Calories per recipe : 100 approx
