Green Plantain Kootu

Ingredients

Green Plantain - 1

Bengal Gram Dhal - 1/4 cup

Tamarind - small lemon size

Salt

For Grinding

Coconut - 6 to 7 tbsp

Poppy seeds - 1 tsp

Red Chillies - 5

Coriander seeds - 1 tsp

Jeera - 1/2 tsp

Bengal Gram Dhal - 2 tsp

Procedure:

1. In a kadai, fry the ingredients for grinding except coconut and poppy seeds with a little oil and asafotedia.
2. To this add coconut and poppy seeds and grind them to paste with little water.
3. Chop the veggies and pressure cook them with dhal. Dhal must not be mashed.
4. Take tamarind extract.
5. Mix cooked dhal, ground paste, salt, tamarind extract and vegetables. Add water as needed and boil them.
6. Garnish with curry and coriander leaves.

This is slighlty thicker than the usual sambhar.

Instead of green plantain you can make this with the following

• White Pumpkin and dried Hyacinth bean (Mochai in tamil). Beans should be soaked overnight and then cooked
• Fresh Hyacinth bean. This need not be soaked. Just pressure cook it
• Potato diced into small pieces
• Green Tomatoes