Saturday, March 5, 2011

South Indian Moong Dal Curry Soup

A simple birthday lunch for M, in India: Bell-Pepper Avial, Cherupayar Curry-Moong Dal Curry, Rose-matta Rice, Mulagu-manga/pickle and Pappadums.

This  is a very simple Moong Dal Curry. It has several variations: one can do away with onions and garlic but the basic ingredient is the paste of ground coconut with cummin. Several whole spices like cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and cinnamon-leaf also come in the variations: sometimes boiled with the moong beans, or infused into the oil used to saute the onions  and left to simmer in the curry or ground with the coconut paste. All these alter the flavour subtly and provides you with that particular home-made dish from memories. This is a soupy version and goes to Deb's Souper Sundays.
Serves about 6, 1 Cup of Soup each!
Ingredients
I cup moong dal, soaked in plenty of water overnight
1 Cup of grated coconut
1/2 tsp of cummin seeds
2 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 cup of finely chopped red onions
2-3 slit hot green chillies
1 stem of curry leaves
2 tbsps of coconut oil
1 broken dried red chilli
1/4 tsp mustad seeds or cummin seeds
Salt

Heat 1 tbsp of oil
Saute the onions and garlic for a few minutes
Add  the slit green chillies and saute for a few more minutes
Add the soaked moong beans
Boil the Moong beans with 2 2/3 cups of water, salt and 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
Meanwhile grind the grated coconut with 1/2 tsp of cummin into a smooth paste.
At this stage you can decide on a thick-curry or a Curry Soup.
Reduce the amount of water to half a cup while adding the coconut-paste to  the cooked beans.
Add it to the cooked moong beans alongwith 2 cups of water
Let it come up to a gentle boil
Simmer for 5-8 minutes.
Temper mustard seeds or cummin seeds in the other tbsp of oil
alongwith curry leaves and dried red chilli.
Add a pinch of asafoetida  and pour over the curry.
For the Soup version:
Add fried onion slices as garnish.

14 comments:

  1. Mmm this looks fantastic. I love seeing the foods that both Chinese and Indian cuisines use in Indian dishes. For example, I'm most familiar with moong dal in a chilled sweet moong and rock sugar soup my mother would make me whenever I got sick as a child. According to Chinese herbal medicines, it has "cooling" properties that are good for when you are sick or have fever.

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  2. wow, very nice recipe, click looks great too.

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  3. I would love this any which way. A soup or a daal.
    Lentils soups are my favorite and i can survive on them for months:) Even today i made a yellow mung soup with vegetables.

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  4. Moong dal curry looks adipoli. I love this curry.

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  5. Thankyou!
    Xialou! Look forward to that recipe of chilled Moong beans soup one of these days in your blog.
    Yes, according to Ayurveda, moong beans are a cooling ingredient for the body and we usually have it during summer.

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  6. Wat a nutritious curry,truly tempting and comforting..

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  7. This looks delicious--I am sure it is very full of flavor--great comfort food. Thanks so much for sharing it at Souper Sundays. ;-)

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  8. Oh, sounds delicious...love the fried onions on top.

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  9. What an amazing click, looks beautiful and yum!

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  10. Looks delicious! I use most of the Dals with the gravy like this one.

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  11. I like the addition of coconut in this curry delicious colour

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  12. wow..simple and healthy...:)

    Dr.Sameena@

    http://www.myeasytocookrecipes.blogspot.com/

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