Brief Introduction:
South India Cuisine as such is very diverse. However staple food in South India has always been Rice. When talk about white rice, it’s always been served with different kinds of lentil stews like Sambar, Daal (Plain Lentil Stew with salt) , masoppu(green leaves with lentils) and many others. In this article I will be writing about three different variations of the lentil stew or broth all originating from south India.
Vegetable Sambar:
South Indian curry made from a lot of vegetables, lentils, tamarind paste, jaggery and spices. Sambar means mixed spices.
Ingredients Required:
- Pigeon Peas Lentil (Toor Daal): One Cup
- Chopped Vegetables : One and Half Cup( Vegetables like okra, beans, carrots, eggplants, drumsticks, tomatoes)
- Onion : One Finely Chopped
- Tamarind Paste : One Table Spoon
- Jaggery : Half Table Spoon (Powdered)
- Red Chili Powder: One Table Spoon
- Sambar Powder : One Table Spoon
- Turmeric Powder : One Table Spoon
- Salt : To taste
For Tadka Or For Seasoning:
- Oil : Two Table Spoon
- Mustard Seeds : One Tea Spoon
- Cumin Seeds : One Tea Spoon
- Dry Red Chilly : Two Or Three
- Asafetida : One tea Spoon
- Curry Leaves : Two To Three
- Garlic : Three Cloves (Crushed)
How to make Vegetable Sambar:
- Wash and chop all the vegetables. Also wash the pigeon peas lentil and boil both together along with chopped onions in a large vessel. Add water as required. Cook until all vegetables and the lentil is fully cooked.
- Add Salt, one table spoon of turmeric powder.
- Mix well Cook for one minute, and then add one table spoon of sambar powder to the broth.
- Mix well again then add one table spoon of tamarind paste and half table spoon of powdered jaggery. Then Add Chili powder.
- Mix well, add half cup water, cover the vessel and cook for one or two minutes until the broth mixes well with the masala.
- In another plan heat two table spoon of oil, add one tea spoon of mustard seeds let it crackle. Then add one tea spoon of cumin seeds,half tea spoon of asafetida, two to three curry leaves and two to three dry red chili. Roast them until brown then add garlic. The seasoning is now ready to be poured over the broth.
- Pour the seasoning over the broth and mix well. Hot vegetable sambar is ready to be served.
Vegetable Sambar best goes with White rice. It can also be had with dosa, idly and other breakfast dishes.
Masoppu :
Masoppu in Green leaves boiled along with lentils and mixed into a fine paste along with spices to form a thick watery curry. Mosappu in Kannada means smashed green leaves, soppu means leaves in Kannada. This dish is more dominated with more greens than the lentils.
Ingredients required:
- Green leaves: Two Cup( Few of Spinach leaves, dill leaves, Fenugreek leaves, Coriander leaves and few of Amaranth leaves)
- Pigeon peas lentil (Toor Daal) : One And Half Cup
- Onion : One roughly Chopped
- Tomato : One Cut into Four Halves
- Green Chilly : Six to Seven
- Garlic : Five to Six Cloves
- Coconut : One Cup Grated
- Tamarind : One table spoon
- Salt : To Taste
For Seasoning or For Tadka:
- Oil : Two Table Spoon
- Mustard Seeds : One Tea Spoon
- Cumin Seeds : One Tea Spoon
- Dry Red Chilly : Two Or Three
- Asafetida : One tea Spoon
- Curry Leaves: Two To Three.
How to make Masoppu:
- Wash few leaves of dill, fenugreek, spinach leaves, amaranth leaves to measure up to one and half or two big cups of mixed leaves.
- Wash One and half cup of pigeon peas. Take a pressure cooker. Add the greens along with the pigeon peas.
- Add chopped onion, chopped tomato, six to seven green chili, five to six cloves of garlic, water and salt to taste.
- Pressure cook it for four whistles.
- Let it cool and let the pressure release.
- Meanwhile, in another plan heat two table spoon of oil, add one tea spoon of mustard seeds let it crackle. Then add one tea spoon of cumin seeds, half tea spoon of asafetida, two to three curry leaves and two to three dry red chili. Roast them until golden brown.
- The seasoning is now ready to be poured over the broth.
- Once the pressure is released from the cooker, take the ingredients from the cooker and blend it into a fine paste.
- Take a vessel heat the paste add half cup of water, grated coconut and tamarind paste then pour the seasoning over the broth. Mix well. Cook for one or two minutes.
- Hot Masoppu is ready to be served.
It is a very famous Mysore dish. It goes best with white rice but can be had with raggi mudde (raggi ball).
Bassaru:
It is a variation of Masoppu, a broth or stew made from the stock of green leaves and lentils. The boiled green leaves and lentils are used to make a palya or a sabzi to be eaten along with the rice and the stew. It has almost same ingredients as masoppu but few extra ingredients for the sabzi. The major difference is that we do not blend the ingredients; we use the ingredients to make the sabzi or palya.
Ingredients required:
- Green leaves: Two Cup( Few of Spinach leaves, dill leaves, Fenugreek leaves, Coriander leaves and few of Amaranth leaves)
- Pigeon peas lentil (Toor Daal) : One And Half Cup
- Onion : One roughly Chopped
- Tomato : One Cut into Four Halves
- Green Chilly : Six to Seven
- Garlic : Five to Six Cloves
- Coconut : One Cup Grated
- Tamarind : One table spoon
- Salt : To Taste
For Seasoning or For Tadka:
- Oil : Two Table Spoon
- Onion : One Finely Chopped
- Mustard Seeds : One Tea Spoon
- Cumin Seeds : One Tea Spoon
- Dry Red Chilly : Two Or Three
- Asafetida : One tea Spoon
- Curry Leaves: Two To Three.
How to make Bassaru:
- Wash few leaves of dill, fenugreek, spinach leaves, amaranth leaves to measure up to one and half or two big cups of mixed leaves.
- Wash One and half cup of pigeon peas. Take a pressure cooker. Add the greens along with the pigeon peas.
- Add chopped onion, chopped tomato, six to seven green chili, five to six cloves of garlic, water and salt to taste.
- Pressure cook it for four whistles.
- Let it cool and let the pressure release.
- Once the pressure is released from the cooker, take the ingredients from the cooker and strain the water into a large vessel.
- Add grated Coconut, Tamarind paste and cook for one or two minutes.
- Meanwhile, in another plan heat two table spoon of oil, add one tea spoon of mustard seeds let it crackle. Then add one tea spoon of cumin seeds, half tea spoon of asafetida, two to three curry leaves and two to three dry red chili. Roast them until golden brown.
- The seasoning is now ready to be poured over the broth.
- Use the same seasoning to make the palya as well as to add to the broth. Pour half of it to the broth and mix well. Cook for one or two minutes.
- Use the other half to mix with the solid ingredients remaining in the cooker that is the leaves along with pigeon peas, onion, tomato and green chilly. Mix well the palya is ready to be served.
- After cooking the broth for one or two minutes it’s ready to be served hot.
This goes best with white rice or raggi mudde( Raggi ball) . This is ate along with the palya made along with the broth.
Hope you like the three different types of Indian stews made from lentils. Do try at home and hope you enjoy it.
