You just can’t miss cooking this Kootu! A veritable vegetable medley, this South Karnataka speciality is the spiced up version of sambar. Kootu befriends almost all vegetables, pulses, cereals, grains etc. Together, they make a nutritious, sumptuous, delicious dish that is served even during special occasions.

Dish Type:  South Indian Vegetable Stew                                          

Preparation Time:  20 min

Cooking time:  30 min

Serves:  4 persons

Ingredients

For pressure cooking:

Tur dhal                       50 gms

Water                          250 ml

Turmeric powder        A pinch

Ghee                            A drop

Groundnut                   50 gms (raw variety)

Beans                          50 gms

Cluster Beans              50 gms.

Field Beans                  50 gms.

Cabbage                      50 gms.

Peas                             50 gms.

Potato                          1 no. (medium size)

Sweet Potato               1 no. (medium size)

Knol Khol                     1 no. (medium size)

Carrot                          1 no. (medium size)

Onion                          2 nos. (medium size)

While  boiling

Salt to taste                 3 ½ tsps approx. (3 tsps at the start of boiling + ½ tsp when you add ground masala)

Water                          500 ml

For grinding: (to prepare Kootu Powder)

Black gram dhal                      1 tsp

Bengal gram dhal                   3/4th tsp

Cumin seeds                            ½ tsp

Pepper corns                           ½ tsp

Khus Khus                                1 tsp

Red chillies                              4 nos.

Dry coconut                             100 gms

For seasoning:

Ghee                            1 tsp

Mustard seeds                        ½ tsp

Red chillies                  2 nos.

Curry leaves                1 sprig

Asafoetida                   A pinch

For garnishing

Coriander leaves

Directions

Wash dhal with water, drain and keep aside.

Wash all vegetables, curry leaves and coriander leaves in salt water. Drain and keep aside.

Cook dhal in a pressure cooker along with water, turmeric powder and a dash of ghee.

While dhal is getting cooked….

Peel the skin of Knol khol, carrot, sweet potato and onions. Remove the ends of beans. Chop potato, knol khol, carrot, cabbage and onions into cubes and beans into 1” long pieces.

When tur dhal splits, add the chopped vegetables. Also add salt. Switch off the flame when you hear 1 whistle from the pressure cooker. Let it cool.

While dhal and vegetables are being cooked….

You can do dry frying. For this, first, grate the dry coconut.

Heat a medium sized kadai. Dry fry the grated dry coconut. Transfer it to a plate. Let it cool.

Now start dry frying the rest of the ingredients listed under “For grinding” one after another separately and keep transferring each of them to a plate. Let them cool thoroughly.

Grind the dry fried ingredients (except dry coconut). Now add dry coconut and grind to a fine powder. Mix this powder in a bowl of water uniformly . Add this to the cooked dhal and vegetables. Also add ½ tsp of salt and tamarind paste. Boil for about 5 to 10 min. When you get the fragrant flavour of kootu, its the right time to get ready for seasoning.

For this, heat ghee in a small skillet. Put mustard seeds. When they crackle put broken red chillies, curry leaves and switch off the flame. Add asafoetida. Immediately pour it on to the boiling kootu.

Garnish it with thoroughly washed and chopped fresh coriander leaves.

Khara Kootu is now ready.

Also view in this blog recipes for “Beetroot Sambar“, “Gherkins Sambar“, “Onion Tomato Sambar“, “Brinjal Sambar” and “Ridge Gourd Huli Thovve”

Note:

Onions can also be fried separately and then added to other vegetables and dhal towards the end of boiling.

Other names for a few ingredients are listed below:

Tur dhal: Also known as pigeon pea

Groundnut: Also known as peanut

Knol Khol: Also known as Navala kosu, Navalkol, Alkul, Nookul, Ganth Gobi, Kohlrabi

Cabbage: Also known as Patta Gobhi, Paat Gobhi, Muttai kosu, Ele kosu, kobi, band gobi

Field Beans: Also known as Flat Beans, Broad Beans, Indian Beans, Hyacinth Beans, Avareka. This is mostly available in winter season from October to January