Thotakura pappu

With the temparatures going down indicating the beginning of spring, I saw these fresh greens at an Indian grocery store that’s near to my office and decided to cook them tonight. My aunt (atta) makes thotakura vepudu, that tastes so heavenly, even people who hate greens would want to have some more. While I debated with hubby dear to cook a stir-fry or with dal, I had to give up and settle down with dal finally. It’s a simple yet comforting dish and goes well with any vepudu (stir-fry), or just papad alone. Lets jump on to the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup toor dal (kandipappu)

3 cups water

3 cups thotakura leaves (do not include stalks)

1 tsp of oil

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp chilli powder

1 small lime sized tamarind (soaked in a cup of water and extract the pulp out of it)

For the popu/tadka:

1 tbsp cooking oil or ghee

2 cloves of garlic (crushed slightly)

1 tsp mustard seeds (avalu)

½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

5 dried red chillies (broken to pieces)

2 twigs of curry leaves

pinch of hing powder (asofetida)

1 medium sized onion finely chopped (about ½ cup of chopped onions)

chopped coriander leaves for garnish

How to:

• Wash and pressure cook tur dal with water, thotakura leaves, oil, and turmeric powder. (Adding oil and turmeric cooks dal softly)
• Let the pressure cool down, while you get ready with the popu/tadka
• In a small pan, heat oil/ghee, and on low flame fry garlic till lightly brown. Add mustard seeds. When they start to crackle, add cumin seeds, red chillies, curry leaves and hing powder. Fry for few seconds.
• Throw in the chopped onions and let it fry on medium flame for 3-4 mts till the onions turn soft and lightly pink in color. Turn off the flame and set aside.
• Now mash the tur dal with a ladle, and add chilli powder, salt to taste and tamarind extract. Mix well.
• Add the popu/tadka that was fried earlier to the tur dal. Cook on medium flame for 4-5 mts till the desired consistency is reached. It should not be too watery but should look like thick.
• Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with steamed rice, and bangaladumpa vepudu or with rotis.

Variation: Instead of pressure cooking thotakura along with kandipappu, sometimes I cook the tur dal with a little oil and turmeric. Mash it and set aside. Add the thotakura to the tadka (after frying the onions) and saute for 3-4 mts. The rest of the procedure would be the same. Adding the popu/tadka to the mashed dal and cooking it for approximately 4-5 mts.