Vaal dal Khichdi

Blogging Marathon# 29: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: Course Wise Meal from any State - Maharashtra/ Lunch Dishes
Dish: Vaal Dal Khichdi 

Day 2 of BM# 29 and I'm doing 'Maharashtrian cuisine-Lunch dishes' theme. Today's dish is also another one-pot meal, but this time its a legume and rice combination, Vaal Dal Khichdi. Nupur @ One hot Stove is one of my favorite bloggers and she happens to be a Maharashtrian. So I have perused her blog a lot for this week's theme :-)

When I saw her post for Vaal Khichdi, I went out and bought Vaal dal to make the dish. Vaal is slightly bitter, but the addition of tamarind and jaggery tames it a little bit in this dish. My 5 year old didn't dig the bitterness, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. So thanks to Nupur for introducing a new legume. Here's the picture of Vaal dal.

I changed the proportions a little bit to suit my taste and I made the khichdi in an open pot instead of the pressure cooker. Nupur suggests soaking both rice and dal for 30 minutes. But I used jasmine rice and I soaked it only for 10 minutes and soaked vaal dal for about 2 hours.

Ingredients:

Rice - 1cup
Vaal dal - ½cup
Onion- 1 small, finely chopped
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Curry leaves - 6-8
Asafoetida (hing) - ¼tsp
Red chili powder - ½tsp
Ground Coriander - ¼tsp
Ground Cumin - ¼tsp
Tamarind pulp - 1tsp
Jaggery - 1tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Soak rice and dal for at least 30 minutes.
• Heat 1tbsp oil in a thick bottomed pan; add mustard seeds and once the seeds start to splutter, add curry leaves and hing. Next add onions and cook until translucent.
• Add red chili powder, ground coriander and cumin, turmeric. Cook for 30 seconds. 
• Now add the drained rice and dal. Mix well and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add 3 cups of water and bring to a boil; lower the heat, cover and simmer until almost all of the water is absorbed and rice and dal are completely cooked, about 20-25 minutes.
• Add tamarind pulp and jaggery. Mix well and cook for another 4-5 minutes. Add water if you think the mixture is too dry. Serve hot!!

I served it hot with some ghee, potato chips and instant mango pickle.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 29.