Exotic vegetables needn't be only used for exotic dishes. They can be adapted to our day to day foods as well. Now, it is one thing to use local vegetables in our traditional dishes, but quite another to find special vegetables and then use them in "ordinary" dishes. I remember the first time Amma bought Brussels Sprouts in Madras. And she made upkari in the same manner as she'd make this. I thought she just wasn't creative then. But when I make mushrooms this way or zucchini in this manner, it does amount to the same thing.
Vaishali recently blogged about the Zucchini Kootu. The idea seemed wonderful and I wanted to try it out. I was feeling quite lazy and didn't want to do much work. I married her idea to Amma's recipe and landed with this. I really enjoyed the kootu and look forward to eating this more often!
1 cup Zucchini, peeled and diced
1/2 cup Moong Dal
2 tsp Sambar Powder
2 tbsp Coconut, scraped
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Urad Dal
1 tsp Oil
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
Salt to taste
For the Tempering:
1/2 tsp Oil
1/2 tsp Urad Dal
Pressure cook the diced zucchini along with the moong dal and the sambar powder.
Heat the oil in a frying ladle and add the urad dal. Fry till the dal turns golden brown. Grind this along with the cumin seeds and the coconut. Add this paste to the zucchini-moong dal mixture along with the salt. Add the asafoetida and mix well.
For the tempering, heat the oil in the frying ladle and add the urad dal. Add this to the dish and serve hot with steamed rice.
15 comments:
Interesting.. this is exactly how i make chow chow/cabbage and every other regular koottu :)
shd try it sometime!!
I too have been wanting to make a kootu with zucchini after seeing Vaishali's post. I'd bookmarked her recipe.
Good to know that zucchini works well here.:)
zucchini kootu looks very good!
Raaga that's a really unusual twist to zucchini!
Bland veggies seem to be a great match for kootu, don't they?
Delicious kootu!
Interesting. I had read vaishali's post and now u have made too...inspiring me gals!
Very amazing dish! Vegetables are such delightful wonders. Will try this as I have one Zucchini lying in my fridge.
Thanks,
Ashwini.
I guess its all in the mind - for me Zuccini will always bring to mind a salad.....need to think out of the box!
I generally don't like zucchini and then I'm not excited to buy it because here it is imported but I like the way you have made it here so next time I'm in a place where it is grown locally I'll give this a try.
Hmm,.yummy yumm!!
we have so much zucchini and squash, that i started making hummus with it. try it. kootu looks great.
Looks too good. I make it in a similar way minus the sambar podi.
Zuchini in Kootu...hmmm,interesting..:)
Your version of the zucchini kootu sounds delicious, Raaga. I like the idea of using moong dal-- I don't use it nearly as much as I would like to. Looks delicious.
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