This is a simple authentic South Indian side dish that can be served with Rice, any curry and papad. Paruppu stands for lentil (dal) and usili stands for crumbled. Here a vegetable is cooked with crumbled lentil and the result is a delicious dish. The best part about the dish is that even picky eaters start enjoying vegetables. Different vegetables can be incorporated in the recipe like french beans(Beans paruppu usili), cluster beans, cabbage (cabbage paruppu usili), broccoli (broccoli paruppu usili), radish (mullangi paruppu usili), asparagus (asparagus paruppu usili), carrot (carrot paruppu usili), beetroot (beetroot paruppu usili), banana flower (vazhapoo paruppu usili) etc.
Ingredients
Chana dal(Kadalai paruppu) -1/4 cup soaked.
Red chillies-4 in nos.
Hing-1/4 spoon
Green Beans-11/2 cup chopped
Curry leaves-1 string
Mustard Seeds-1/4 spoon
Oil -2 tspn
Fennel seeds-1/4 spoon (optional)
Salt to taste
Broccoli UsiliVazhapoo (Banana flower) UsiliFrench beans UsiliBroccoli UsiliCabbage Paruppu UsiliMullangi (Radish) Usili
Method
1. Heat the kadai with little oil and temper the mustard seeds and curry leaves.
2. Add the chopped vegetable with little salt and sauté and let it cook covered on low heat.
3. Meantime grind the soaked chana dal, chilli and hing together with out water.
4. In a different pan add the remaining oil and fry this chana paste until it crumbles up. Alternatively, you can also pinch a small portion in the idli stand and steam it for 12-15 minutes. Then crumble it up when it cools down.
5. Add this fried mixture to the partially cooked vegetable and fry them both together for next 5 minutes.
6. Yummy osili ready.
Tips
- Make sure not to overcook the veggies.
- You can also use toor dal instaed of channa dal or a combination of both.
