When I was at the supermarket over the weekend, I saw some fresh purple amaranth leaves in the fresh produce section. I do enjoy eating green leafy vegetables and a bunch of it went to into my cart. Now, a few days later, it is sitting on the counter staring at me as if to give me a gentle reminder that it needs to be cooked up soon before it wilts away.
So, here is how I cooked the amaranth in lentils (dal with amaranth leaves) and because I did not want to use it all in the dal, I sauted some of it as an accompaniment.
Dal - Lentils and Amaranth leaves
Step 1: Soak 1/2 cup of pigeon split peas in water for about 30 minutes.
Step 2: Add the soaked lentils to a pressure cooker, add one roughly chopped tomato, 2 pods of garlic, 1/4 inch ginger, 2 slit green chili, a few drops of coconut oil or ghee, salt and 1/4 teaspoon turmeric. I had some coriander leaves that I wanted to use up, so I added that along with 2 cubes of frozen dill I had in the freezer.
Step 3: Clean and chop a handful of the amaranth leaves and add it to the pressure cooker. Add a cup of water. Let it pressure cook for 2 - 3 whistles.
Step 4: Once the pressure is released from the cooker, smash all the contents together. Add a cup of water, if you think the lentils are too thick.
Step 5: Add a few tablespoon of tamarind pulp. But since I have run out of tamarind pulp, I soaked some Kokum (Garcinia indica) in hot water and added a few tablespoons of the juice. It is the first time, that I have used this as a replacement to tamarind, and I think it worked out well.
Step 6: Bring it back on the flame and let it cook for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, let's create the tempering for the dal. Take a pan, add some ghee, when the ghee is hot, add some mustard seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add a crushed garlic, and red chili and 1/2 a sliced onion. When it turns a little brown and fragrant, add it to the dal.
On an average day, I make a sabzi / stir fry to go with me my meal. And today, since I wasn't going to use up all of the amaranth leaves, I decided to stir fry it.
Add coconut oil in a pan. When it heats up, add mustard seeds, asafetida, red chili, curry leaves, minced garlic. When it becomes fragrant and starts to change color, add 1/2 an onion diced. Once the onion turns translucent, add the chopped amaranth leaves. Add salt and saute for 10 minutes.
Now time to cook some rice.
That's it folks for today.💃
Thank you for reading 💟
All photographs are my own and all the images have been 📷 photographed me.