Wednesday

Sattvic Tuesdays - Toor Dal Varan (Pigeon Peas Curry 2)

Cooked pigeon peas tempered with cumin seeds and simmered in coconut sauce!


                                                        
According to Ayurveda, India's classic medical science, foods are grouped into three categories – sattvic, rajasic and tamasic.One can find more information here.  Sattvic food is that which is in the mode of goodness ie. clean, pure and wholesome. Sattvic foods include fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, lentils, whole grains beans,unrefined flour, dry fruits, coconuts, cow’s milk, butter, ghee, cream, cheese, yogurt etc., but  no onion and no garlic.
For me personally, I fast on Tuesdays and  its one meal in the evening. So whatever I cook on Tuesday evenings for prasad/naivedya has to be sattvic food. I prepared this curry which is a regular in my cooking and back home too this is a regular one. It is simple yet amazingly delicious in taste with the use of coconut, cumin and ghee off course. Vegans can use oil instead of ghee.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup toor dal (split pigeon peas)
1/8 tsp turmeric
1 green chili (optional)
salt to taste
Grind
1/4 cup fresh coconut, grated
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 cup coriander leaves /cilantro
Tempering
1 tbsp oil or ghee
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

Preparation Method
1. Cook the toor dal with enough water including chili and turmeric, preferablly use a pressure cooker
2. Grind the coconut, cilantro and 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds to a fine paste or coarse if preferred and keep aside.
3. Once the lentils are cooked, prepare for tempering
4. Heat oil/ghee in another vessel and  add cumin seeds. Transfer the cooked dal to this vessel, add the ground coconut paste. Add salt and bring to boil.
5. Serve with rice.

 
Preparation Time: 25-30 mins
Serves: 2
Note: use a pressure cooker to reduce the cooking time significantly


This recipe requires turmeric and is is my entry to Think Spice-Think Turmeric guest hosted by Sudeshna of Cook like a Bong, event by Sunita, use of pigeon peas and will go to MLLA 17 hosted by Sri and started by Susan of The well seasoned cook. This is also famous dal of Malvani Konkan and Goan(Sattvik & Shivrak food) cuisines and will go to WYF Speciality Food  by EC

28 comments:

Unknown said...

The pigeon peas curry sounds wonderful, healthy and warming! Perfect with rice!

Jhonny walker said...

I so love lentil soups...keep making them every day..well I have them everyday and make them often!

This is just one good daal dish!

Unknown said...

Looks so lovely nice one.

Siddhi Shirsat said...

hey this varan seems very tasty...evn i love varan very much...its very simple, less spicy and tasty too...:-))

Sanjana said...

Adding coconut paste to this is a superb idea- I bet it tastes amazing- I'll definetly try this out next time I make toor daal!

Sandhya Hariharan said...

Nice... Will surely give it a try.. We love dal... for its simplicity!

Sushma Mallya said...

Simple and delicious,nice recipe too...

prasu said...

wow.........delicious dal dear....

Jeyashris Kitchen said...

nice recipe.and a great variation to the usual dhal i make.And this time i am also going to post a non garlic,onion recipe

Namitha said...

Looks awesome..Good recipe :-)

Cham said...

The coconut with dhal should be tasty combination!

Priya Suresh said...

Wat a delicious dal, love the addition of coconut..looks yummy!

Deepa G Joshi said...

Nice and simple..will definitely try..

Suparna said...

adding coconut is new to me shall try it out next time, thanks dear :)
TC

Tina said...

Sounds great and delicious......

Malar Gandhi said...

Sattvic food, something that we all should think about it atleast weekly twice, ur post is an eye opener to me. Dhall looks yumm:)

Deepthi Shankar said...

nice comfort meal

Padhu Sankar said...

Sounds simple and interesting!
http://padhuskitchen.blogspot.com/

kitchen queen said...

This curry looks ver appetising and nice to go with rotis and even rice.

Joanne said...

We learned about ayurvedic medicine the other day in a lecture on alternative medicine. It is such an interesting practice and way of thinking about health! I love any recipe that calls for coconut milk. This looks and sounds delicious.

SE said...

hey all..thanks for stopping by and for the wonderful comments..this is the specially loved dal at our home since we were kids...so do prepare ..you'll will like it.

sra said...

Thanks for the entry! I am familiar with this.

Kanchan said...

Varan :)
The most common Dal made @ any Maharashtrian family !
Perfect recipe !

lubnakarim06 said...

Wow..that sounds yum...

Yasmeen said...

Simple and delicious and full of goodness :D

EC said...

Simple comfort food...thanks for the entry

Spice said...

regular one at my home...but we don't use coconut...with coconut also it sounds delicious

Rohini said...

Dal looks simple and tasty dear.. I am sure it goes easy on a tummy that fasts for the entire day! Will try this during my next fast! Thanks for sharing it :)

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