We frequently make brinjal Dal and this tomato Dal at home. This tomato Dal has pleasing color and its perfect in its looks and at taste. Me and Hubby love this Dal so much. Do try if you prefer slightly tangy dal.





Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 4 (medium sized red ripened)
Toor Dal / Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup (100gms)
Shallots - 5
Garlic - 5 pods
Green chilly - 4
Tamarind - one small lemon sized
Turmeric powder - a pinch

For Tempering:

Ghee - 2 tsp's
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Split urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Dry red chilly - 2
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp

Method:

Peel the shallots and garlic. crush the garlic and slit the green chilies.  Wash the tomatoes and slit each into four pieces.

In a vessel, add the toor dal, tomato pieces, shallots, green chilly, garlic and tamarind. add 1 and half cup's of water, a drop of oil and a pinch of turmeric powder.

Add 1 cup of water to pressure cooker and place the vessel. pressure cook up to 4 whistles. switch off the flame. wait till the pressure releases. Then cool the contents in vessel.

Now using your masher, mash the dal and tomatoes well. or you can give a grind for a second in your mixie.

For tempering, heat a pan, add ghee and heat it. then add mustard and let it pop. add split urad dal, dry red chilly, curry leaves and asafoetida powder. pour the mashed tomato dal to the pan and let it come for a boil.

Switch off the flame and garnish with corriander leaves.

Serve along with potato fry and rasam.

Today i prepared this Mushroom fried rice to pack for lunch. My son and hubby loves to take fried rice for lunch. even i find it easy to make. i also added vegetables along with mushroom, so that my son eats vegetables. Finding different variety rice to pack for lunch box is becoming difficult for me. hope to share more lunch box recipes here soon.


For me, spring onions is must for fried rice. spring onions add a good taste to this rice recipe. You can also add ajinomoto to make it taste just like restaurant served ones.

There are many ways to prepare greens. I remember my great grand mom cooking different types of kootu with keerai. I tried making mulai keerai poriyal along with its stem and added moong dal for a variation. we liked it a lot. It tasted good when mixed with rice and little ghee. The trick is to use only the tender part of the stem rather hard stem. Then you should first saute and cook the stem before adding the greens. this way, we can cook the greens and stem evenly. Do try this nutritious as well as healthy poriyal. You will like it for sure.



Ingredients:

Mulai Keerai - 1 bunch
Moong dal - 2 tsp's
Grated coconut - 2 tsp's
Onion - 1 finely chopped (optional)
Salt to taste

For tempering:

Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Split urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Dry red chilly - 2 (broken)

Method:

Soak moong dal in water for about 30 minutes. drain the water from moong dal and set the dal aside.

Clean and seperate the mulai keerai from its stem. discard the bottom part of the stem, which will be hard.
just select the tender stem, wash it thoroughly and chop them finely and set aside.

Wash the mulai keerai leaves seperately twice or thrice and chop it finely and set aside.

Heat a pan, add 1 tsp oil, add mustard. let it splutter. then add split urad dal and broken dry red chilly. saute and add finely chopped onion and saute it till it turns translucent.

Next add the finely chopped stem and mix well with the onions. let the stem get cooked for about 2-3 minutes. Then add the finely chopped greens and mix well. soon the greens get cooked in a minute or two.

Finally add the drained moong dal and the grated coconut. Mix well.

Remove from the flame and transfer the poriyal to a serving bowl.

Serve along with Rice and Sambhar.


Notes:

Adding onion and moong dal is optional.

Never cook the greens for more than 5 minutes. it may loose all the nutrition. so just let 2-3 minutes and remove from flame.

I made this Mint Baby Potato Pulao for Yesterday's Lunch Box. I am trying to find out different variety rice recipes for my son as he just started to have lunch at school. We all liked this pulao and that made me to click pictures of my share of lunch to share it with you all.


It is very good to eat pudhina. as it is the best for our digestive system. Making kids eat pudhina is difficult. Kids will love to eat pudhina rice when done in this way. just add 1 or 1/2 green chilly, so that kids may not find this rice spicy.