Varagu Arisi Pudhina Sadham /Kodo Millet Mint Rice (Mint-Lemon Millet)

Category: Rice Varieties
Preparation Time: 15 mins  
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Servings: 2 servings

Millets are very nutrient rich grains. These super grains were forgotten for a while and now they are making a coming back. 

Varagu Arisi Pudhina Sadham

This is a very easy recipe and we can call this as mint-lemon millet. For this I have used Kodo millet / Varagu Arisi, but we can use any of the millets. 

Mint Kodo Millet with Moongdal-Carrot Salad

I prefer soaking millets for atleast 2 hours so that it would help with digestion and also will get cooked faster. If we have time, we can soak for about 6 to 8 hours.

Ingredients:

• Kodo Millet / Varagu Arisi - 1/2 cup
• Raw Peanuts- 2-3 Tbsp
• Lime / Lemon juice - as needed
• Oil - 1/2 Tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Channa dhal - 1/2 Tbsp
• Urad dhal, Split - 1/2 Tbsp
• Curry leaves - few
• Red chillies, broken - 1-2 nos (adjust as per spice level)
• Turmeric powder - a generous pinch
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Salt - to taste
• Water - as required

To Grind:

• Mint leaves - 1 cup
• Ginger - 1/2 inch
• Green chilly - 1

Method:

• Cooking Millets: Wash and soak 1/2 cup of the millet for atleast 1 hour. Take 1 to 1  1/2 cup of water in a pan (if we want more grainy, we can use 1:2 ratio and for softer rice we can add 1:3 ratio) and bring to boil. Once it started to boil, add the drained millet and cook until most of the water gets absorbed. Then cover and cook in low flame for few mins and switch off. Once its done, fluff it up and spread it in a plate to allow it to cool down

Easy Vathakuzhambu using Vathakuzhambu Podi

Category:  Easy Kuzhambu Varieties
Preparation Time: 5 mins  
Cooking Time: 20 mins 
Servings: 3 servings

Vathakuzhambu is a spicy tamarind based gravy made with dried veggies (Vathals) like Turkey berry (Sundakkai), Black night shade berry (Manathakkali). There are lot of variations - we can use small onion and garlic or we can also prepare without onion & garlic. With regard to masala, we can either use freshly ground masala or just sambar podi / sambar masala or vathakuzhambu podi.

Sundakkai Vathakuzhambu

Here I made the easiest version of Vathakuzhambu using Sundakkai Vathal and home made Vathakuzhambu podi. 

Manathakkali Vatha Kuzhambu

You can find the recipe for the podi in our blog: VathaKuzhambu Podi

Vathakuzhambu Podi

With this podi in hand, making Vathakuzhambu is a breeze and we can use any Vathal for this. If we are not having any vathal, we can just use the sambar onions and garlic.

During this pandemic season, getting fresh Indian veggies was bit difficult so we often made this vathakuzhambu:) 

For me, the perfect combo is Hot rice with Spicy Vathakuzhambu, vegetable kootu and appalam.

Ingredients:

• Sesame oil - 1-2 Tbsp 
• Sundakkai Vathal (Dried Turkey Berry) - 1/4 cup
• Tamarind - lemon sized (Adjust as per taste)
• VathaKuzhambu Podi - 2-3 Tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
• Split urad dal - 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves - few
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Salt - to taste
• Water - as required

Beetroot Thogayal

Category: Lunch
Preparation Time: 5 mins    
Cooking Time: 10-15 mins
Servings: 3-4 servings

Spicy Beetroot Thogayal

Thogayal is a kind of chutney but it will be thicker and coarsely ground than chutney. Thogayal can be mixed with rice along with a tsp of sesame oil  or can have as a side dish for Morkuzhambu.

Beetroot Thogayal

This beetroot thogayal goes well with hot rice but we can also have it with Idli, dosa or Chapathi.

Thogayal can be made with or without coconut; here I have not used coconut. But if we prefer, we can add little coconut to it. If we are adding coconut, we need to finish off on the same day, we cant store it and use later. Without coconut, we can store it in refrigerator for 1-2 days but mostly we will finish off the same day :) 

Beetroot Thogayal without Tempering

Tempering is completely optional, It tastes good even without it :)

Ingredients:

• Beetroot -  1 big sized, grated
• Sesame oil- 1 Tbsp, divided
• Whole Urad dhal- 3 Tbsp
• Red chillies- 3-4 (Adjust as per taste)
• Black Pepper- 1 tsp
• Tamarind - small gooseberry sized (adjust as per taste)
• Asafoetida- 2 pinches
• Salt - to taste

Vendakkai Morkuzhambu (Okra in yogurt gravy)

Category:  Lunch
Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Servings: 2-3 servings

Mor Kuzhambu or buttermilk kuzhambu is a south Indian gravy made from Indian buttermilk or slightly sour curd / yogurt and goes very well as an accompaniment with rice.

 

Vendakkai Morkuzhambu

We can add vegetables like Okra, white pumpkin / ash gourd or even vadai :) If we run out of veggies, we can prepare this even without any veggies. It will still be very good.

I had already posted a recipe using Ash gourd here - Ash-Gourd Morkuzhambu. This is slightly different from that one posted earlier.

Ingredients:

• Vendakkai / Okra / Lady's finger - 6-8
• Butter milk  - 2 1/2 cups (I used 1 cup of thick curd & 1 1/2 cup of water)
• Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Oil - 2 tsp

To Grind:

• Toor Dhal - 1 Tbsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Coconut - 1/2 cup
• Green chilly - 2-3, adjust as per spice level

Kondakadalai Sundal - Navarathri Special

Category: Sundal / Navarathri Recipes 
Preparation Time: 10 mins + overnight / 7-8 hrs soaking   
Cooking Time: 10 mins   
Servings: For 2 - 3 persons
 

Kondakadalai Sundal

 Ingredients:

• Kala Channa / Brown Kondakadalai - 1 cup
• Oil- 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Channa Dhal - 2 tsp
• Urad dhal (split) - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves - few
• Red Chillies - 2-3 nos (adjust as per required spiciness)
• Coconut, grated - 1/4 cup
• Salt - to taste
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Soak the Kondakadalai for 7-8 hrs or overnight and then pressure cook it with required salt and 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
2. Drain the water and keep it aside
   
3. Heat oil in a pan, once its hot add the mustard seeds followed by Channa dhal, Urad dhal, Red chillies and curry leaves; saute for a min till the dhals turn golden brown
   
4. Add the cooked kondakadalai and mix well
   
5. Saute for 5 mins till it gets blended with the tadka
   
6. Add the grated coconut, mix well
   
7. Switch off and serve hot!