Fresh/Raw Pigeon Peas Saaru…my first experience with the beans

Hi.

Days here are quite gloomy as we are amidst heavy rains, one can see flooding all over and the city. Telephone and Internet services are badly affected. Commuting has become painful as one faces traffic jams and the roads too are in bad condition. The state government declared holiday for schools since Friday itself but the kid’s school seemed quite indifferent to all the chaos and was still functional. On top of it they also conducted the KET exam on Saturday and the parents were supposed to drop their kid to school.

Since S, was busy with his CEO it was my turn to drop the kid to school in the rains. My car’s battery was down so I had to drop him on the two wheeler and was thoroughly drenched by the time I reached home. Wading in the floods on the two wheeler where the road was not even visible was surely very scary. I simply followed the vehicles in front observing for any potholes and ditches. By the time I reached home I  already  had headache and throat pain. I decided to have warm food and nothing is more welcome than either some hot soup or saaru (rasam).

I had got hold of some fresh tuvar beans recently and the beans were peeled and ready to use. I was looking out to make something very interesting using the beans as this was my first time with them but at that moment when I was craving for something hot, I decided to use them in making a saaru. I made this saaru in the same line of my avarekaalu saaru with a little variation in the ground masala.

I was very sceptical about the taste as I had never worked with these beans earlier but I was extremely delighted that the saaru turned out very tasty and had a great flavour of the fresh beans. With hot rice and some ghee on top it made a very hearty combination. I’m ready to try out more recipes with these beans surely as my first experience turned out very successful. I wanted to post this on Saturday itself but the server has been mostly down because of  the rains.

Ingredients

a cup and a half peeled pigeon pea beans/ tuvar dal beans

half cup grated fresh coconut

2red chillies

2tbsp rasam powder/saaru podi

2tbsp coriander seeds

1/2tsp cumin seeds

1-1/2tsp tamarind paste

a sprig of curry leaves

1tsp mustard seeds

a pinch of turmeric powder

salt to taste

2-3tsp oil for tempering

finely chopped cilantro

Method

To make the fresh masala for saaru…

Grind to a paste using water, coriander seeds, red chillies, cumin seeds, saaru podi, coconut and a little cooked pigeon peas.

Wash the beans and then boil the beans in water and some salt till cooked.

Mix the masala paste to cooked beans. Adjust salt and mix the tamarind paste. Add enough water to get a saaru consistency (I added about 1 cup water).

Bring it to a boil and temper it with mustard seeds, turmeric and curry leaves.

Boil for 2 more minutes and then serve hot with rice or Chapati.

Sending this to my event ‘Only’ Curries guest hosted by Kamalika and also MLLA41 guest hosted by Simona and is the brainchild of Susan. Also, reposting two of my favourite curries for my event

Paneer Dhaniya

Smoked Cottage Cheese Stuffed Okra