Cauliflower & Peas in Coconut Sauce(Cauliflower Pattani Kootu)

Kootu is a traditional Tamil comfort food which can be done in a jiffy. Vegetables, lentils and coconut with some spices are the base for this easy and delicious food. A perfect complete balanced food with veggies, lentils and coconut is served traditionally with cooked rice and rasam(spiced soup). I served this with some hot pepper rasam and cooked quinoa. Believe me quinoa tastes great with lot of traditional Indian side dishes like sambar, rasam etc than adding to salads. There are lot of ways this kootu is done and in my family itself it is done in so many ways, either by adding cooked dal, grinding raw dal or with the addition of tamarind juice. Whatever way it is the end result is sure healthy and very tasty.

Preparation Time – 10 Minutes

Cooking Time – 20-30 Minutes

Serves – 4

Ingredients

Cauliflower – 1 medium sized(Cut out the florets from the thick stem and wash and keep it aside)

Frozen green peas – 1/2 Cup (Thawed)

Sambar powder – 1 Tsp or to taste

Turmeric powder – 1/2 Tsp

Salt – 1 Tsp or to taste

Raw Thoor dal – 2 Tbsp

Coconut pieces – Taken from 1 half

Rice flour – 1 Tsp

Tempering

Coconut oil – 1 Tsp

Mustard seeds – 1/2 Tsp

Split Urad dal – 1 Tbsp

Curry leaves – few optional

Method

1) Put the cauliflower florets, peas, salt, turmeric powder, sambar powder in a thick bottomed pan and add around 1/3 cup of water at the bottom.

2) Cover and cook till slightly tender, the more you cook the more nutrients will be lost. So cook till desired time.

3) Grind the Thoor dal, coconut pieces, rice flour in to  a fine paste and add it to the cooked cauliflower and simmer for 2-3 minutes and switch off.

4) Warm the coconut oil and then add mustard seeds. Once the seeds stop spluttering add urad dal and cook till slightly brown and then add the curry leaves and transfer it to the cauliflower, coconut kootu.

5) Serve hot with some spicy rasam and cooked main course of your choice.





Note – There are three different recipes I follow for this kootu, ver 1 veggies, tamarind juice,  cooked dal and roasted spices+coconut ver 2 – cooked dal, coconut, rice flour, sambar powder ver 3 – coconut, dry red chili, rice flour, cumin sees and raw uncooked dal. But this one is a combination of ver 2 and 3 because just at the time of adding the cooked dal I realized that  I had ran out of the same.



Events

Sending this to Vardhini’s Healing foods – Cauliflower an event started by Siri.

Sending this to Kaveri’s Kerala Kitchen Event an event started by Ria and Rose.

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