Fresh Fenugreek Leaves & Cooked Dal Stir Fry

For this week’s marathon, my theme is picking two ingredients from a given list and cooking with those two ingredients from a cookbook. For today, my ingredients are greens and toor dal. My greens are fresh fenugreek leaves aka menthi koora. Here the fresh fenugreek leaves are stir fried with pre-cooked toor dal. This is a very quick recipe provided the dal is pre-cooked. Also, this recipe doesn’t require onion and garlic, and is an excellent recipe for people who do not eat onion and garlic for religious purposes. This recipe is from Cooking at Home with Pedatha.

As it is said, some habits die hard. I tweaked or rather skipped a few ingredients to suit my palate. I skipped sugar, asafoetida, wheat flour and coconut in this recipe. Rest of the recipe I followed as given.  After tasting the fry, I think I can guess why Pedatha must have added sugar and wheat flour to the recipe.  Fenugreek is a bitter leaf and some people might not like it's flavor.  My stir fry was a little bitter but I like fenugreek leaves in curries and stir fries, and in fact my mom and most of my maternal family add fenugreek leaves to pretty much all the curries & stir fries they prepare.  I am us to it's flavor.  If one is trying this herb for the first time, I would strongly recommend adding little bit of sugar to the stir fry.

In the US, a bunch of fenugreek is usually pretty big. I used one bunch and it was about 3 cups of leaves after plucking the leaves from the bunch. The recipe called for 2 large bunches, which is about 4 cups of leaves after plucking. I proportionately scaled down the recipe and rest of the ingredients required for 3 cups of leaves.

Menthi Koora Pappu Recipe

Source: Cooking at Home with Pedatha
Total Time: 35 - 40 minutes
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 – 25 minutes (includes time to pressure cook dal)
Serves: 2-3

📖 Recipe

Menthi Pappu Koora ~ Fenugreek Toor Dal Stir Fry

Fresh fenugreek leaves cooked with dal is a dry curry from Andhra cuisine.

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Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Andhra Cuisine, Telugu Cuisine

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Servings: 2

Calories:

Author: Usha Rao

Equipment

• Cutting Board
• Knife
• Pressure Cooker
• Frying Pan or Kadai

Ingredients

• 1 large bunch Fenugreek Leaf or 3 cup plucked Fenugreek Leaves
• ⅓ cup Toor Dal
• ¾ tablespoon Wheat Flour I did not use it
• 1 ½ teaspoon Jaggery or Sugar opt
• ¾ tablespoon Oil I skipped ghee and used 1 ½ tbsp. Oil
• ¾ tablespoon Ghee ~ Clarified Butter skipped this and used 1 ½ tbsp. oil
• 2 teaspoon Urad Dal
• 1 teaspoon Mustard Seeds
• 4 Dry Red Chilies
• 4-5 Curry Leaves
• 1-2 Green Chilies split into two
• ½ teaspoon Salt adjust to taste
• ¼ cup Cilantro

Instructions

• Cook toor dal in a pressure cooker with ¾ cup water until cooked. Dal should not be mushy. I cooked it for 4 hisses on high flame. Dal can also be cooked on stove top but will take longer to cook.
• Pluck the fenugreek leaves with tender stems and chop it roughly.
• Dry roast wheat flour until its aroma rises. Add sugar or jaggery and keep aside. I skipped this step.
• Take 1 ½ tbsp. oil in a pan and heat it. I skipped ghee and instead used oil. If using ghee, heat only ¾ tbsp. oil.
• Add urad dal, mustard seeds and when urad dal turns brown, reduce the heat.
• Add curry leaves, dry red chilies and when chilies change color, add fenugreek leaves and green chilies. Cover and cook until fenugreek is cooked. This will take about 3-5 minutes.
• Add salt, dal, wheat flour & sugar/jaggery mixture (if using) and cook for another 4-5 minutes until the dal and greens are well incorporated and cooked.
• Add cilantro and turn off the heat. If using ghee, add it before turning off the flame.
• Serve hot with rice and may be some rasam.

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Ingredients:

• 1 large bunch Fenugreek Leaf or 3 cup plucked Fenugreek Leaves
• ⅓ cup Toor Dal
• ¾ tbsp. Wheat Flour (I did not use it)
• 1 ½ tsp. Jaggery or Sugar (opt)
• ¾ tbsp. Oil (I skipped ghee and used 1 ½ tbsp. Oil)
• ¾ tbsp. Ghee ~ Clarified Butter (skipped this and used 1 ½ tbsp. oil)
• 2 tsp. Urad Dal
• 1 tsp. Mustard Seeds
• 4 Dry Red Chilies
• 4-5 Curry Leaves
• 1 – 2 Green Chilies split into two
• ½ tsp. Salt (adjust to taste)
• ¼ cup Cilantro

Preparation:

• Cook toor dal in a pressure cooker with ¾ cup water until cooked. Dal should not be mushy. I cooked it for 4 hisses on high flame. Dal can also be cooked on stove top but will take longer to cook.
• Pluck the fenugreek leaves with tender stems and chop it roughly.
• Dry roast wheat flour until its aroma rises. Add sugar or jaggery and keep aside. I skipped this step.
• Take 1 ½ tbsp. oil in a pan and heat it. I skipped ghee and instead used oil. If using ghee, heat only ¾ tbsp. oil.
• Add urad dal, mustard seeds and when urad dal turns brown, reduce the heat.
• Add curry leaves, dry red chilies and when chilies change color, add fenugreek leaves and green chilies. Cover and cook until fenugreek is cooked. This will take about 3-5 minutes.
• Add salt, dal, wheat flour & sugar/jaggery mixture (if using) and cook for another 4-5 minutes until the dal and greens are well incorporated and cooked.
• Add cilantro and turn off the heat. If using ghee, add it before turning off the flame.
• Serve hot with rice and may be some rasam.

Recipes I posted this day in 2008: Mutton Shorva
Recipes this day in 2011: Red Bell Pepper Chutney
Recipes this day in 2012: Flan ~ Caramel Pudding