Moong Dal Thoran & An Award!

For the moment lets enjoy this simple dish-Moong Dal Thoran. Thoran is a traditional dish of Kerala cuisine and is an important side dish with rice, curries, papads and pickles. Made with ground coconut mixture along with few spices the dish is widely popular for its simplicity and taste. You may add your own choice of veggies, the basic preparation remaining the same, and the name of the dish changes accordingly.

Protein Packed Meal with Kadala(chickpea) curry & Cheese Omelette!

Moong dal thoran is a dish packed with nutrients and forms a great combo with rice, Parippu(dal) curry, pickles and papads. Though easy to make few steps have to be followed for making a perfect moong dal thoran. The right amount of water and preparation time are the two main factors that determine the final outcome. When I first started making this thoran, I wasn't aware of the right proportions and preparation time and I can still recall few occasions when I ended up in making either a sticky thoran or a totally dry thoran in which the beans kept rolling off the plate and refused to stay in one place! Well, my experiences and trials have finally taught me in making a perfect moong dal thoran which I would like to share with everyone here.

Whole green moong dal - 1 cup

Water for cooking dal in cooker - 1 1/4 cup

Salt to taste

Grated coconut - 1/3 cup

Cumin seeds - 3/4 tsp

Garlic cloves - 2

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Black Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

Dry red chillies - 4 broken

Coconut Oil - 1 tsp

Grind the ingredients to be ground adding enough water to make a coarse, yet well ground paste. Keep aside.Add water to pressure cooker, enough salt and washed moong dal. Keep at high heat and when steams starts coming out of the nozzle put the weight on. On the first whistle, reduce heat to simmer and steam for additional 15 minutes. Open the cooker only after the pressure has been released.Heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds. Add curry leaves and broken red chillies and saute till the leaves turn crisp and you get the aroma.Add the ground paste, heat at low-medium and saute for few seconds till raw smell goes. Do not allow the colour of ground paste to change. You may have to adjust the heat accordingly.Add the cooked dal, mix everything well and cook on low-medium heat for few minutes until the dal has fully absorbed the flavour of the added spices.Turn off heat and serve with rice, ghee, parippu curry, pickles & papads!

I'm very happy to receive Lovely Blog Award for the second time, this time from Ms.Sailaja of Sailaja Kitchen and Pooja of Experients in my kitchen. Thanks a lot friends. This award means so much to me. You have made my day :)

I'm sending Moong Dal Thoran to My Legume Love Affair:Twelfth Helping hosted by Apu of Annarasa & started by Susan.

Pooja.