Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Carrot Moong Curry ( Poriyal )

I have a new affliction and since I have never heard of something like this I decided to name it, I call it accident prone-vitis. I am not sure how long it lasts but so far it has lasted me about a week. The symptoms include fingers that gripped stuff firmly until now, suddenly turning buttery and causing plates to drop and break, especially at the most inconvenient times, sprains and muscle aches suddenly occuring while doing the same activities that never seemed to cause them before, getting bitten by bugs and even causing pc crashes. I am hoping that this is a short lived affliction and that I am already seeing the last of it. In case any of you know the cure to this strange affliction do share :-)

Jokes aside, you know they say when it rains it pours, I realized this week how true it was...Just when I could least afford to lose time, all these things I mentioned above and some I did not... slowed me down considerably. So the food that I cooked was strictly healthy and simple.

And nothing can describe this carrot curry better than the words,healthy and simple. This curry is something any body can make, it has no complicated steps and final result is something that is hearty and delicious. I love to have this curry just by itself, but it makes a great pair with most Indian dishes especially with south Indian cuisine.



Carrot Moong curry 3

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and method to make carrot moong curry

1/2 cup split yellow moong lentil (moong dhal)
5 large carrots (cut into 1/2 inch pieces) (yielded about 3 cups of cut carrots)

Seasoning
1 serrano green pepper (or Thai or Indian variety green chillies according to taste) (cut fine)
2 dry red chillies (broken into small pieces) ( or according to taste)
2 tsp coconut oil (or any other oil)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp split black gram lentil (udad dhal)

salt to taste

optional garnish
4 tbsp grated fresh or frozen coconut
handful cilantro (coriander leaves) cut fine

Wash the split yellow moong lentils in fresh water and drain

Place the drained split yellow moong lentils in a large pot and add double the quantity of water and bring it to a boil. Then lower heat and let the lentils simmer in that water until it is semi cooked. Add more water if required during this process.

When the lentils are a little softer add the cut carrots to it and cook both carrots and moong until soft but not mushy.

( I did this process in the microwave this time and it worked out well. I placed the moong lentils along with water in a large glass dish and placed in the microwave and cooked in one minute intervals adding water as required and stirring regularly until the lentils were semi cooked. Then I added carrots to it, sprinkled a little water and cooked in one minute increments until the carrots and moong were both cooked and soft but not mushy)

In a small pan heat oil. When hot add mustard seeds to it, when the mustard seeds start to splutter and split black gram lentil and stir a couple of times.

When the split black gram lentil starts to turn reddish, add the green chillies and red chillies.

When the chillies start to change color slightly, pour the entire oil + mustard seeds + lentils + chillies on the cooked lentils and carrot. Add salt to the curry and mix well.

Heat this curry for another minute or two for the flavors to blend (either in the microwave or stove top)

Garnish with grated coconut and cilantro and mix well and serve hot along with rice and dhal/ sambar/ rasam or with roti's/ chappathis

Serves approximately 2 to 3

Suggested variations

You can use 5-6 curry leaves in the seasoning too, just add it after the green chillies and continue with the rest of the recipe as mentioned

Notes

The reason that salt is added in the end for this recipe is because I have heard that adding salt when cooking lentils impacts the cooking process such that the lentils do not cook fully, so the salt is added after they are completely cooked. This does not impact the taste of the final curry at all.

35 comments :

anudivya said...

Your picture is beautiful today... looks like you made some changes. Very nice.
This looks like pongal (which I happen to love) but with the veggie goodness.

ST said...

Curry looks divine...

Kitchen Chronicles said...

Wow! Looks fantastic. Very tempting.

Unknown said...

Very beautiful & tempting picture. Nice one.

Nandinis food said...

Beautiful ,colourful,tempting.......curry!

Unknown said...

looks delicious..i love adding moong dal to most of my dry curries..good one..

Priya Narasimhan said...

nice recipe and you have a good sense of humour. :-)

Jaishree Iyer said...

Curry looks delicious Usha..Tempting pic..

jayanthi said...

hi usha,
nice recipe. we also make this with cabbage, tastes like cabbage sundal. another variation in this which i make as a quick curry--- carrot and beetroot diced into cubes and done like your carrot-moong curry. it takes hardly 5 mins in the pressure pan.

Parita said...

Healthy and a different one, never tried moong dal with carrots, sounds delicious!

Anonymous said...

Great Click that made me drool Usha..great post..thanks

A_and_N said...

I love your healthy stuff!

kittymatti said...

Looks so good! what a lovely click!

Mythreyi Dilip said...

Never used moong dal in Carrot Poriyal. Urs looks so yummy and very nice click!!!

Pam said...

I think I have accident prone-vitis too.

The curry looks really delicious.

Mangala Bhat said...

new to me..lovely recipe ..Awesome pic !

Unknown said...

we use to call this as carrot tiyyakura looks delicious.ummm I like to have this with hot rasam and rice ummmmm tempting.

Anonymous said...

Awesome click and a healthy poriyal..I do the same with green beans too and I love it.

Myvegfare said...

first of all good pic !!, I also do this, i learnt this from my MIL after i got married, she used to add moong dal (paitham parappu) to almost all her dry curries, I add moong dal to Cabbage, Carrot, Beans, Chow-chow, Beetroot, that's all the vegetables i could think off, particularly my daughter loves this carrot curry..., sometimes i add Dhanialu podi which i learnt from a andhra friend it goes great with carrot curry

Shri said...

Great combination of Carrots and Moon dal although I never had this curry!Great pic.It is so true sometimes, there is a continuous string of accidents/bad days!Guess you have to hang int here:D

Uma said...

The affliction! It happens to me too :)

curry looks so tempting and nutritious Usha! Nice shot!

Lisa Turner said...

Just gorgeous. Pure comfort food!

aTxVegn said...

Oh, wow, that curry looks amazing!

I seem to have periods of klutziness and what I call the dropsies. Usually it only lasts a few days. Be careful!

Red Chillies said...

Very beautiful picture and loved the bowl. Very nice recipe, I may try this with beans though as the carrots here are very sweet.

Pavithra Elangovan said...

Carrot moong curry looks so good and healthy.. nice click too..

Preety said...

lovely click usha..nice recipe too

sangeeta said...

the picture is awesome..and the dish is completely my type...i do a lot of experiments with moong dal as it is considered to detoxify and help in loosing n maintaining wt.
thanks for dropping by...do keep in touch..

Priya Suresh said...

Curry looks fabulous and beautiful click Usha!

Chitra said...

we too make it.but with sambhar powder instead of red chilly..shud try this once :) thanks!!

karuna said...

tht is an interesting combo. Never heard of it. looks healthy too. will give it a try.

Unknown said...

Have never added moong dal to carrot poriyal. Sounds great. Will add next time I try.

Deepthi Shankar said...

looks delicious .. I love moong, never paired it with carrots though

Sunshinemom said...

Such a healthy dish!

Prasukitchen.blogspot.com said...

looks delicious dear . pls stop by at my blog when u get a chance

Valarmathi Sanjeev said...

Looks delicious. Nice combo. Picture looks awesome.

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