Paruppu Keerai (Greens in Dal)

Keep it Simple

"Keep it Simple" this is going to be my theme for the week. Simple food cooked with a few ingredients preferably fresh the way my ammayi(mom's mom) and aatha's (dad's mom) used to cook. They never used complicated ingredients or methods of preparing food but the dishes always tasted amazing. When I had the luxury of watching them cook I never paid any attention. These days I only wish I were there next to them to catch those nuggets of wisdom. Jumping to a completely different topic, it also got me thinking why some of us are vegetarians and some of us are not. My mother's side of the family was Vegetarian and my father's side was Non-Vegetarian, we grew up eating non veg. I am curious how these things came to be.

Paruppu Keerai
This is a real easy dish with just 2 main ingredients.I found these radish and turnip greens in the farmers market, came home and cooked them the same day, simply flavorful and tasty.



Ingredients
1. 1 Cup Toor Dal (cooked with a pinch of turmeric and a tsp of oil) the water added should be 1 : 1 1/2 dal,water [Moong Dal can also be used ,always roast the moong dal to slightly brown before cooking them]
2. 2 Cups fresh greens
3. 1/2 Onion finely diced
4. 2-3 green chillies slit
5. seasoning - mustard, cumin, methi seeds, curry leaves
6. 1 tsp oil/ghee


radish, turnip greens

Method
1. In a pan heat the oil, add the seasonings, cumin, methi, mustard and curry leaves in that order.
2. When the mustard starts to pop add the onions and green chillies, saute till the onions are translucent.
3. Now add the greens and saute till they wilt a little bit.
4. Add the cooked dal, extra water depending on the consistency you want and salt and when the dal starts to boil leave for 3-4 minutes and turn off the heat.

Nothing could be more simple. Goes well with rice and with chappathis.




PS: Solemn rememberance to the fallen soldiers of wars past and sincerely hoping there would not be any more wars in the future.