Kale is one tough leafy vegetable with woodsy stalks and chewy leaves similar to Murungai Keerai, leaving us with few recipe options. Cooking this with lentils was considerably easy for intake with minimal effort. Tried this with Bengal gram, following traditional kootu preparation and had no problem with picky eaters. Fresh kale (green or purple) belong to the Wild cabbage / Broccoli family, rich in anti-oxidants with high nutrition content. These type of veggies usually get a red carpet welcome in my kitchen and will be honored with lentil studded crown.
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| Ingredients | |
|---|---|
| 1/2 cup | Bengal gram (kadhala paruppu) |
| 10 big stalks | Kale greens |
| 1/2 cup (chopped) | Onion |
| 1/4 cup (chopped) | Tomato |
| 3 cloves | Garlic |
| 1 (slit open) | Green chili (optional) |
| 1 tablespoon | Grated coconut(optional) |
| 1 & 1/2 cup | Water (exact measure) |
| 1/2 teaspoon | Mustard seeds |
| 1/2 teaspoon | Cumin seeds |
| 1/4 teaspoon | Split black gram |
| 1/4 teaspoon | Asafoetida powder |
| 1/4 teaspoon | Turmeric powder |
| 5 leaves | Curry leaves |
| 2 long | Dry red chili |
| 1 teaspoon | Oil |
| 1 teaspoon | Salt (or to taste) |
- Soak Bengal gram for 30 minutes in water, wash and drain.
- Trim the thick stalks of kale greens, finely chop the tender stalks and green leaves.
- Discard yellow or light green leaves, they are not edible.
- Wash the chopped greens and keep aside.
- Take a pressure cooker, combine Bengal gram, chopped onions, garlic cloves, chopped tomato, green chili (if any), chopped kale greens, turmeric powder, salt and water.
- Pressure cook exactly for one whistle and switch off. Over cooking can make the dal mushy, if you wish to have texture like shown in picture, then soak 30 minutes and cook up to 1 whistle.
- When done heat oil in a separate small pan, splutter mustard, cumin seeds, split black gram, dry red chili and curry leaves.
- Add this to the cooked dal and sprinkle asafoetida and grated coconut.
- Simmer for few minutes for a thicker consistency mixing very gently.
- Too much stirring and mixing could break up the Bengal gram and you will end up with mashed dal.
- Switch off and serve as a side for rasam sadam, I like to mix it with plain rice topped with ghee.
Notes
Yield: 3 to 4 adult serving as side.
Other Kale recipes : Kale Poriyal , Kale Aloo Subzi
Comments
9 responses to “Kale Kootu”
Hi Mullai,
I tried this recipe today! came out really well.But I used collard greens instead of kale! It was a little bit softened but really awesome….I used collard greens as a substitute for our murungai keerai so far, it was really gud..from now on ll try with kale too !
Thanks,
Veena !!
nice receipe Mullai,thank you soo much,will try soon.
Nice receipe ! Tried this & it worked out gr8 with my daughter.
thanks.. (I made my daughter to eat murungai keerai in the same style just adding extra sambar powder to ur procedure.)
Interesting combination with Kadala paruppu. I learnt that greens should always be cooked in open vessel rather than pressure cooking. The presence of certain chemicals in some vegetables and greens reduces the absorption of essential nutrients in the body. When heated in the open, those chemical levels reduce. For many bean varieties, those chemical levels reduce by sprouting them. Thanks for the nice recipe.
Mullai, Kale is a healthy green leafy veggie. So doing kootu will enhance its taste equivalent to our normal greens. Thnx for this idea
Mullai,
Nice healthy dish, I am worried about bitterness of kale
Swathi, its not that bitter and quite tolerable. Only thing is, its little chewy… but even that, after pressure cooking becomes soft and tender. Try tasting it and you will agree with me.
Good n healthy dish…
Nice one Mullai, but i doubt if v get such greens over here….anyway seems to be a nice recipe..