Carrot and chow chow kootu

Kootu is a traditional south indian side dish served for rice. It is prepared with the goodness of dal and hence goes well with any kuzhambu, rasam and thogayal varieties. This time i have prepared kootu with carrot and chow chow. It is a healthy and easy to prepare kootu variety. We can serve it as a side dish for rice or even mix with hot rice and ghee and feed for kids or serve it as a side dish for roti. Since i had little chow chow left i included it in this dish. We can even make it just with carrots. Though this recipe is similar to the chow chow kootu which i have earlier posted, i made a slight variation to this recipe by using a combination of both moong dal and toor dal.

Carrot and chow chow kootu Recipe

Serves  :  3 - 4 people

Ingredients

• Carrot  -  3 big 
• Chow Chow/Chayote -  1/2 of a medium sized piece
• Moong dal  -  2 tbsp
• Toor dal  -  2 tbsp
• Turmeric powder  -   a pinch
• Salt  -  as required

To grind

• Grated or dessicated coconut  -  1/4 cup
• Cumin seeds  -  2 tsp
• Green chilly  -  2 to 3 small

To temper

• Oil  -  2 tsp
• Mustard  -   1/2 tsp
• Split urad dal  -  1/2 tsp
• Asafoetida -  a generous pinch
• Curry leaves  -  few

Method

1. Wash and clean moong dal and toor dal. Soak it in water for 10 to 15 minutes. This way it gets cooked soft and also takes less time for cooking.
2. Drain the soaked water and pressure cook dal for 7 to 8 whistles, by adding a pinch of turmeric and required water.
3. Peel the skin of chow chow, remove the seed and thick part, wash and chop into small pieces.
4. Same way peel the skin of carrots, wash them and chop into small pieces. 
5. Pressure cook both the vegetables together for 3 to 4 whistles by adding little salt and turmeric powder and required water. 
6. Grind coconut, green chillies and cumin seeds to a fine paste by adding little water.
7. In a pan, add the cooked chow chow and carrots, dal and coconut paste and mix well. Add salt and water if required and adjust the consistency of the kootu as required.
8. Cook it for 2 to 3 minutes so that everything blends well. Transfer to the serving bowl.
9. In the same pan, add oil and temper with mustard and asafoetida . Once mustard crackles, add urad dal and once dal turns brown, add curry leaves.
10. Transfer the tempered items to the kootu.
11. Serve kootu as a side dish for rice or even for rotis.

Notes

• You can use a combination of moong dal and toor dal or just use moong dal. Soaking dal before pressure cooking helps in reduce the cooking time and also makes it soft.
• You can skip chow chow and use carrots alone to make it as carrot kootu.
• I always pressure cook carrots for 1 or 2 whistles when making kootu, so that it is soft. You can even cook it by adding water and boiling in a pan.
• Adjust green chillies according to the spice level.
• Add water as required since kootu needs to be of thicker consistency. In case the dish turns out to be watery, mix little rice flour with water and make it to a paste without lumps and add it to the boiling kootu. It will help in thickening the kootu. Do not add more flour as it will change the taste of the dish.