Pesara Pappu

This lentil/dal is also known with other names like split yellow moong dal and green gram dal (when whole). It has soft and subtle taste when lightly roasted and cooked. This dish is a great time saver and I make this mostly when I have less time in hand to make a good meal. This is cooked in minutes and is easily digestible unlike toor dal. This one is loaded with good amount of nutrients and a good source of protein.

You need..

1 cup of split yellow pesara pappu, lightly roasted *
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tomato, chopped
1 tsp red chilli powder
3 green chillies
2 cups water
salt to taste
a pinch of turmeric
cilantro for garnishing

For seasoning:

1 or 2 tbsp oil
1 tsp jeera
½ tsp mustard/rai
2 or 3 red chillies crushed
or 3 garlic cloves whole (optional)
Few curry leaves

1. Add roasted dal, ginger garlic paste, a tsp of oil, turmeric, salt, green chillies, tomato, water and pressure cook everything until 1 or 2 whistles. Mash the dal with the back of the spoon if you want it soft or leave it if you want grainy.
2. For seasoning, heat a tbsp oil in a frying pan, add jeera, cumin, red chillies, garlic cloves, curry leaves and fry until they turn brown.
3. Add the seasoning to the dal and garnish with cilantro.

Serve with stuffed okra as a side dish, recipe coming next…
* Roast moong dal on a pan until light brown.

Info on Moong Dal:

Without skins

With their skins removed, mung beans are light yellow in color. They are made into mung bean paste by de-hulling, cooking, and pulverizing the beans to the consistency of a dry paste. The paste is sweetened and is similar in texture to red bean paste though the smell is slightly more bean-like. In several Asian countries, de-hulled mung beans and mung bean paste are made into ice creams or frozen ice pops and are very popular dessert items. In Taiwan, mung bean paste is a common filling for moon cakes.

Dehulled mung beans can also be used in a similar fashion as whole beans for the purpose of making sweet soups. Mung beans in some regional cuisines of India are stripped of their outer coats to make mung dal. In other regions of India such as Andhra Pradesh, a delicious vegetable preparation is made using fresh grated coconut, green chillies, mung and typical South Indian spices - asafoetida, turmeric, ginger, mustard seeds, urad lentil. Many Indians also eat mung beans the first thing in the morning as it provides high quality protein in a raw form that is rare in most Indian regional cuisines. They are widely consumed by Keralites along with kanji (rice gruel).

In India the mung beans are also consumed as a snack. The dried mung beans are soaked in water, then partly dried to a dry matter content of approx. 42% before and then deep-fried in hot oil. The frying time varies between 60 and 90 seconds. The fat content of this snack is around 20%. This snack is traditionally prepared at home and is now also available from industrial producers.

Source: Wikipedia