Friday 12 June 2015

Dill Leaves/Sopssige/Sabbakki Soppu Kootu

Dill leave are very aromatic greens..with strong flavour and high nutrient value..
Great for nursing mothers...but you need no reason to eat  this leafy green vegetable..
It can used in almost all of your daily cooking....like in sambhar, rasam, kootu, sabji and so on..like in rottis and dals as well..
Though this is used as herb in west for salads and soups to increase the flavour.
Kootus are my favourite South Indian gravies.
This particular kootu what I am writing today is very flavourful, spicy and easy to make.
This goes very well with rice and as side dish for chapathi.
I and my husband are ardent fans of dill leaves in any form.
Dill leaves can be used even in chana dal masala vada to increase the taste and flavour.
I have used peanuts in the kootu to give the crunch, but you can use any beans of your choice, like soaked and cooked kala chana or hyacinth beans in season or tuvar beans and so on..
This kootu needs no tempering or tamarind.






Ingredients:
Dill Leaves - 2 large bunches,
Toor dal/Tuvar dal/togari bele/tuvaram paruppu - 1 large cup,
Turmeric - 1/2 teaspoon,
Peanuts - 1 cup,
Jaggery/Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon,
Salt.

Grind to paste:
Coconut - 1 heaped cup,
Mustard seeds - 1 tablespoon,
Rice - 1 teaspoon,
Coriander - 1 teaspoon,
Red Chillies - 10-12,
Asafoetida - a fat pinch.






Method:
Clean dill leaves, pick only the leaves with tender stem.
Clean them and wash well, so no sand particles are in it.
Chop them finely, and cook with very little water, until it wilts.
Pressure cook the dal with turmeric in water, in one container and peanuts with little water and little salt in another container at the same time. 
Or if you cannot do that, then separately cook them until dal is well cooked and peanuts completely cooked, but holds shape intact.
Grind the ingredients under the grinding table, with water to a smooth paste.
Once dill leaves wilts, add ground paste, salt and jaggery/sugar and bring it to boil.
Boil well for 4-5 minutes until raw smell goes and nice aroma eminates from the boiling mixture.
Finally add the dal and peanuts and mix well and remove from heat.
Serve hot with rice or chapathi and enjoy.




Note:
You can reduce the quantity of chillies according to your spice taste.
You can skip sugar or jaggery if you don,t like, but it blends well with kootu.