Parippu Dal Curry- Moong dal with coconut
A delicious moong dal recipe that uses a fresh coconut paste. It's nutty and creamy and goes great with steamed rice.
Servings: 2
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
- Small pan or kadhai for tempering
Ingredients
For the Parippu
- 1/2 cup Moong dal
- 1 tsp Coconut oil (Optional) Substitute with another oil like peanut or sesame
- 3 and 1/2 cup Water
- 1 and 1/2 cup Coconut, shredded fresh and frozen coconut also works
- 1 inch piece Ginger / Adrak peeled and finely chopped
- 1 Green chilli / Hari Mirch
- 1 tsp cumin seeds / jeera
- Salt to Taste
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric / haldi powder
For the Tempering
- 5-6 Small Indian shallots or Ulli / Pyaaz peeled and sliced
- 1 sprig Curry Leaves / Kadi Patta
- 1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds / Sarson / Rai
- 1 Dried Red Chilli
Instructions
Roast the moong and pressure cook
- Place a thick bottomed pressure cooker on medium high heat and add coconut oil. Next add the moong dal and cook for 3-4 minutes. Note that this is dry, unwashed dal that needs to be either dry roasted (skip adding the coconut oil, of course) or fried in the coconut oil so that it becomes toasty and golden in colour. Alternatively, you can also use washed moong dal after draining it properly.
- Once the dal is roasted and smells nutty, add the water, salt and turmeric. Cover and pressure cook for 2-3 whistles. Remove the pressure cooker from heat and let it cool down.
Blend Coconut paste
- Till then grind the coconut, ginger, green chilli and cumin together in a mixie/blender/ processor. I added a bit of salt too. You may need to add some water to make a better paste.
- Once the pressure releases in the cooker, check the dal and mash it using the back of a ladle or a spoon. It should be well cooked, you’ll just need to give it a good mix. I sometimes need to add half a cup of water incase the dal is too thick. Next add the coconut paste to the dal, mix well and cook on low heat for 4-5 minutes while you prepare the tempering.
Prepare the tempering
- Soak the small onions or the ulli as they are called in Malayalam, in cold water for 5-10 minutes. This helps in peeling the onions easily because cleaning and peeling small onions is a tiresome and intricate task. Slice the onions.
- In a small pan, heat the ghee and add the mustard seeds. Once they crackle, add the sliced onions, curry leaves and dried red chilli. Fry for 3-4 mins and add to the dal. Take the dal off the heat and it’s ready.
- Parippu Dal curry is now done. Enjoy with some steamed rice and poppadum!