Have you tried nimmakaya pappu charu? A light soup like preparation with moong dal and lime juice. It is moong dal seasoned with green chilies, touch of lime and a tadka with ghee. Serve it with rice, and it is a bliss.
Nimmakaya pappu cahru or pappu khut is an evergreen recipe in our house and especially on cold winter nights. Recipe is similar to pesara pappu charu but with lime. It is easy to prepare, a comfort food and a go to recipe on any day.
Tadka or tempering is the key to this recipe. Tadka with ghee is the best but you can do half oil and half ghee. And as my father in law used to say, be generous with the tempering, meaning do not skimp on oil/ghee!
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Ingredients
- Moong Dal - Cooks faster than other Indian lentils, it is easy to digest and tasty as well. You can find it in any Indian store. Moong dal is pesara pappu in Telugu, a regional Indian dialect.
- Lime or Lemon - Use lime and if you do not have it handy lemon also works.
- Green Chilies - Use only green chilies and you can use dry chilies in tadka but I skip or remove the red chilies from pappu khut before serving. It is just my personal preference.
- Tomatoes - Tomatoes are optional and growing up I do not remember adding it to nimmakaya pappu charu but some people do add. It tastes good but I feel it alters the taste of the nimmakaya pappu charu.
- Oil/Ghee - Be generous with oil or ghee when preparing the tadka. I usually use a combination of both. Just a teaspoon of ghee takes the taste to a different level.
- Tadka - mustard, cumin, garlic, curry leaves and turmeric. Red chilies, coriander powder and methi powder are optional.
Instructions
Moong dal cooks really fast compared to other Indian lentils. On stovetop it takes 20-30 minutes. However, for a very soft and mushy dal, use a pressure cooker. Use an electric pressure cooker such as Instant Pot, for the ease of multitasking.
Again, there are multiple ways to cook the dal for nimmakaya pappu cahru. Cook dal with just cumin seeds and a few drops of oil or along with onions and chilies. Depending on my mood, I cook accordingly.
For crunchy onions, cook moong dal first and add onions in tadka or when boiling the dal. For a smooth nimmakaya pappu charu, pressure cook everything together, including onions, except lime juice and the tadka ingredients.
Wash moon dal and take it in a bowl for pressure cooking. Add some cumin, green chilies, onion, curry leaves, little bit of oil along with water. I pressure cooked using pot in pot method.
Pressure cook in Instant Pot for 4 minutes and couple of minutes longer if doing pot in pot. In an Indian pressure cooker, cook for 3 whistles and then 5 minutes on low flame.
Release pressure manually, transfer dal to a saucepan and mash it with the back of a spoon. For a firm dal, leave it as is. Add salt, water and boil pappu khut for about 5 minutes.
Meantime, prepare tadka using oil and/or ghee. I usually do half and half but at times use only oil. Temper it with mustard, cumin, curry leaves, garlic and turmeric powder.
Pour the tadka over boiling pappu charu, cover and let boil for few minutes or a little longer if dal is too watery.
Once desired consistency is reached, sprinkle chopped cilantro, turn off the flame and squeeze lime juice.
Serving
Serve nimmakaya pappu charu with rice and a dry curry on the side. Some suggestions are shrimp curry, kheema, ridge gourd egg curry, egg curry or any other curry of your choice.
Sometimes it is fried shrimp or puffs on the side. Pappu charu, rice and pickle is also a mouthwatering combination.
Storage
Store leftovers in the fridge for a few days and reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop before serving. Pappu charu tends to thicken as it cooks. Hence, when reheating, add some water to get it to a required consistency. Do this on the stovetop only.
Substitutions
Moong dal is the preferred dal here and the only substitute would be masoor dal or the red lentils.
Variation
Addition of tomatoes gives pappu khut a different flavor. Cook tomatoes along with pappu or later when boiling cooked pappu or in the tempering like in tamata pappu.
Expert Tips
- Green Chilies - Use only green chilies. You can use chopped or minced green chilies. When using minced green chiles, add it to cooked dal and simmer for a few minutes until the raw smell of chilies dissipates. Then continue with the rest of the preparation.
- Lime - Add lime juice at the end, only after turning off the stove. In the past I did add lime juice and boiled the pappu khut for a few minutes. But after learning about the chemistry behind not cooking lime juice, I stopped. Please don’t ask me the chemistry behind it!
Related Recipes
Pesara pappu is one of the most common lentils from Indian cuisine, besides kandi pappu (toor dal). It is used in zucchini moong dal, in dry curry like menthi pesaru pappu koora, in khichidi, in vada or garelu and in laddu. Below are few more ideas.
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📖 Recipe
Nimmakaya Pappu Charu
Ingredients
- ¼ cup Moong Dal
- 5 Green Chillies chopped, adjust to taste.
- 1 small Onions diced
- 3 Curry leaves
- ¼ teaspoon Cumin
- ¾ teaspoon Salt adjust taste
- ½ Lime or Lemon Juice about 2 tablespoons
Tempering | Tadka
- 2 tablespoons Oil
- 1 tablespoon Butter or Ghee
- 3 Curry Leaves
- ¼ teaspoon Cumin
- ¼ teaspoon Mustard seeds
- ¼ teaspoon Methi Powder opt
- ¼ teaspoon Coriander Powder opt
- 2 teaspoons crushed Garlic
- Pinch of Turmeric
Instructions
Cook Dal
- Wash and pressure cook moong dal with onion, cumin, green chilies, curry leaves, few drops of oil with ¾ cup of water.
- In Indian Pressure cooker, cook for 3 whistles, reduce the heat to low and pressure cook for another 5 minutes.
- In Instant Pot, pressure cook for 4 minutes. With pot in pot method, for 6 minutes or longer. I usually do rice and dal as I did in step by step pictures. Depending on the rice, I cook for 6-8 minutes.
- Let pressure release naturally.
- Mash the dal with a back of spoon for a thick, smooth pappu khut.
- Transfer dal to a saucepan, add 1 ¼ - 1 ½ cups of water, salt and bring to a boil. If you used an Indian pressure cooker, use the same cooker. If you cooked the dal in Instant Pot in inner pot, use the saute mode.
Tadka
- In a separate pan, take some oil and/or ghee, add mustard seeds and let them splutter.
- Then add cumin, followed by curry leaves, crushed garlic and turmeric. If using methi powder and coriander add and give a good stir. Turn off the flame.
- Pour tadka over boil pappu khut, cover and boil for few minutes until desired consistency is reach, about 5 minutes.
- Taste the dal and adjust the seasoning. Sprinkle chopped cilantro, turn off the flame and squeeze lime juice. Give a good stir and serve with rice.
Notes
- Green Chilies - Use only green chilies. You can use chopped or minced green chilies. When using minced green chiles, add it to cooked dal and simmer for a few minutes until the raw smell of chilies dissipates. Then continue with the rest of the preparation.
- Lime - Add lime juice at the end, only after turning off the stove. In the past I did add lime juice and boiled the pappu khut for a few minutes. But after learning about the chemistry behind not cooking lime juice, I stopped. Please don’t ask me the chemistry behind it!
- Nutrition - values mentioned below are approximate values.
Nutrition
This post was originally published in May 2008 and the oldest post on this space. It is edited with new content and images.
Archana says
Perfect! These days I am cooking Moong dal quite a bit and this Nimmakaya Pappu charu will make a wonderful new addition to our dal menus. I loved the stepwise pics and the writeup.
Usha Rao says
Glad you like it and adding it to your dal menu.