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 honoured with lentil studded crown.
south indian recipes
Asparagus is one veggie which is very versatile, though the appearance may look weird and rugged they always seemed humble, bowing to suit your culinary needs. If you remember, I've always compared the taste of this vegetable to that of raw peanuts… and that induced me to make this chutney, which tasted similar to raw peanut chutney with slight appearance and smell of Ridge gourd thuvayal.
Asparagus Thogayal / Chutney / Thuvayal / Asparagus Masiyal / Asparagus Dip
Finger millet / Ragi is widely consumed in Karnataka, popular in rural Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Mostly its used in porridge or Mudde / kali preparations. Due to its high nutritional content its getting significant importance recently and people have started inculcating it in many day to day dishes too. Here's one from my kitchen…
Englsih ~ Finger Millet
Tamil ~ Kezhvaragu
Telugu ~ Ragi
Kannada ~ Ragi
Hindi ~ Ragi, Nachani, Bajra
Malayalam ~ Panjapule
Tomato flavoured thick lentil packed pancakes. Served as a breakfast item or evening snack with spicy peanut chutney, coconut chuney or avial.
Mixed vegetables flavoured in sour curd tempered in coconut oil. (Aviyal / Avial / Mixed Vegetable Curry)
Pakoda kurma is a lentil based sauce which is decadently creamy. Small deep fried lentil dumplings cooked in rich coconut milk gravy. This recipe might sound very unfamiliar to many, as its confined only to certain communities in Tamil Nadu. Quite hard to find online, as it sparingly shows up on searches. There are a couple of ways of making it, here's how we make it in our family. Quite a lengthly process, that's why I guess they make it only during special occassions. Ghee is a must as far as the original recipe goes, but its Ok to substitute with oil. (Padoka Kuzhambu / Pakora Korma / Pakora Kurma )
Deep fried grated carrot balls, one good side for any South Indian meal, a great nutritious snack for kids, wonderful vegetarian appetizer item for guest entertaining. (Carrot Balls / Carrot Vadai )