Keerai Kootu, also known as spinach gravy or keerai molagootal, is a tasty and nutritious side dish that tastes great with rice when made with moong dal. A kootu is necessary for a complete Tamil Nadu Thali. You can always count on seeing a veggie kootu on the menu in addition to the dry curry. Kootu, a Tamil word that signifies a mixture of things, refers to a dish that combines vegetables and lentils. A single vegetable and lentil can be used to produce kootu, as well as a variety of vegetables. The two most commonly used lentils for the kootu are moong dal, or yellow mung bean, and chana dal, or Bengal gram dal.
A simple green is so beautifully fancied up when prepared in the kootu way that a meal of it with rice, ghee, pickle, raita, and appalams makes an extremely delicious vegetarian lunch. Fresh black-pepper prawns fried in ghee as a side dish complete the dinner, making it fit for you like a king.
The enticing aspect of this dish is that almost any sort of green tastes delicious when prepared in this manner; ideally, a combination of greens would work the best.
Recipe for Keerai Kootu
Ingredients:
- 200 g any or mixed greens
- 1½ cup water
- ½ cup yellow mung dal + 1 cup water
- 2 large onions, chopped
- 1-inch piece ginger, grated
- 1 tsp turmeric
- A dash of sugar
- 1-2 tsp red chilli powder or to taste
- 2 tbsp sambar powder
- 1-2 tbsp tamarind paste
- 3-4 tbsp grated fresh or frozen coconut
- 2 tbsp rice flour
- 2 tsp mustard seeds
- ½ tsp asafoetida
- 2 tsp split or whole urad dal or white gram
- 20 shallots, peeled, chopped in half
- 20 curry leaves
- 1 tsp oil
- 1-2 tbsp ghee
Method:
- Remove the inedible stems from the greens, chop them finely, and then boil them for a few minutes in a medium pot with the haldi and 1 ½ cups of water. Keep the water aside rather than draining it.
- In a small saucepan, cook the mung dal in 1 cup water until very soft. Use a fork to crush the mung dal into a paste. Put aside. In a heavy-bottomed big saucepan or kadhai, cook the urad dal in the oil over high heat until it becomes dark in colour.
- When the hing and mustard seeds start to pop, add the chopped onions and curry leaves. Cook for 4-5 minutes over medium heat. Ginger, mung dal, and water with the greens are added. Bringing it to a boil. Stir in the rice flour until there are no lumps. Imli, sugar, salt, sambar powder, and lal mirchi powder should be added.
- Saute the shallots in ghee for 5-8 minutes in a small frying pan while the greens and dal are cooking. Once done, set aside. Add the coconut, sautéed sambar onions, and ghee when the dal has thickened and reached the desired consistency, which should be somewhat thicker than regular dal. Warm up before serving over rice, raita, fried appalams, or rice papad.
Tip:
For the greens you can choose Poy, commonly known as bassela or Malabar spinach, comes especially well. Patra leaves or colocasia also do this, or palak that has been combined with khatta. Or try combining spinach and soft methi.