Green Moong Dal Sundal - Pacha Payar Sundal

Sundals are basically lentils or legumes cooked, tempered with mustard, jeera and then spiced with coconut, green chillies and curry leaves.



I am starting this Navarathri with a Green Moong Dal Sundal. I have made this into a healthier version by making sprouts out of it. I could not sprout it fully. Many people have asked me how to sprout perfectly. The fact that in Indian stores they sell packets of sprouted moong in the fridge isle shows that some people are wasting too much money on such a simple thing. I thought I will add a little note on that here.

Soak Whole Green Moong Dal in water for atleast 12 hours. Then drain the water completely. Keep the dal (the wet one) for about 24 hours tossing once in between. You will see small sprouts appear. This is the stage I used today. To get a good sprout, just toss it again and leave it for another 24 hours. When the weather gets too cold here, it is very difficult to get sprouts. What I do at that time is - preheat the conventional oven for a 3 minutes. Switch off. Keep the drained dal inside and close. Just leave it there for 24 hours. The warmth from the oven will speed up the formation of sprouts.

Now off to the simple sundal recipe. I made a slightly bigger batch as I enjoyed it as a salad. You can just make a little less if you are making just sundal.

Ingredients



Whole Green Moong Dal 1.5 cups
Coconut 1/2 to 3/4 cup (according to taste. I had a little over 1/2 cup)
Green Chilli 1 (more for spicier version)
Curry leaf few
Jeera 1 tsp
Mustard 1/2 tsp
Turmeric 1/2 tsp

Oil and salt to taste

Method of Preparation

1. Soak Green Moong dal (pacha payar) overnight. Drain. You can either use the above method of make sprout or just use as is. Also, I did not cook in pressure cooker as I did not want it to mush up. But you can do that as well. I love the slight crunchiness of the stove cooked moong.

2. Heat a little oil in a pan. Add the mustard. When it sputters, add the jeera and turmeric.

3. When it sizzles, add the green moong dal. If you are not making as sundal for navarathri, you can also add some onions (or even garlic) at this stage. It will taste awesome. Saute till the onions are slightly browned and then add the dal. As I am making this for Navarathri, I avoided the onions.

4. Stir well and sprinkle a little water and close the lid immediately to contain the steam. Cook in low flame.

5. Keep stirring in between and add a sprinkle of water if needed. It will be cooked in 10 minutes or less.

6. In the meanwhile, pulse coconut, green chilli and curry leaf. Do not grind into fine paste. Do not add any water.

7. Add to the dal along with some salt. Mix and cook for a couple more minutes.



Tasty Green Moong Sundal - Pacha Payar sundal is ready


Linking this to Lets Cook - Protein Rich Food Event by Radhika

Linking this to South Indian Cooking - Event by Anu, Hosted by Sangee