Enthaligai: BEET GREENS-LENTIL MIXTURE WITH BROWNED ONIONS

Back home three weeks back after a tiring business trip. Though I bounced back immediately into cooking, I was inching back on my another routines, hence could not sit for blogging.

Being at home is the best feel one could have after a long, strenuous and demanding business trip. I was returning back home on our anniversary day and DH was eagerly waiting for me at the airport to receive me. We are entering into our 13th year of marital bliss. I know nobody in this World would love me as much as him and tolerate my silly nonsense stuffs. I could not find any best words to describe it. It was surprising to see him with a bouquet of flowers . DH never express himself much but his actions always speaks louder than his words. I always look forward to the Airport pickups by DH and Jr. H. I could feel the love and contentment in DH eyes. Jr.H would run towards to me and always gives me a big hug and would melt my heart and calm my soul.

While it was only work and work when I was away home, I was eagerly looking forward to the planned personal vacation after my return. We have planned for a vacation to Ooty, one of the most popular and gorgeous hill stations in South India. We have been there couple of times before and this is our third trip there. As we have seen all the sightseeing locations on our earlier trip, we planned this trip truly for leisure and have good amount of family time. During our trip, the nature was at its best and we enjoyed the cold nights and chilled evenings. Our long morning and evening walks rejuvenated us . Jr. H was more excited than us and he became our photographer and clicked many pictures of this memorable trip :-).

While we were back to Chennai, I grabbed lot of native vegetables from the very famous hill station. The freshly plucked carrots, beets, and radishes looked vibrant and colorful and seized my eyes. The vegetables were seen with colorful leafy greens adorning their top. We never get these vegetables with leaves here in the market. I have heard a lot that these greens are very nutritious and wanted to try it out. So I took care in bringing them back them. I wrapped them in wet towel so that the leaves would not go wilt. I was managing the kitchen for a whole week with the veggies I got from there.

I prepared the beet greens adding moong dhal and it turned out to be a hit at home instantly. The exotic taste rendered from the beet greens were elevated with the addition of firmly cooked yellow moong dhal . I tempered the dish with browned onions which additionally enhanced the flavor to the dish.

Ingredients:

Beet Greens - 1 cup

Moong dhal - 1/4 cup

Garlic - 4 pods

Green chilly - 1

Salt - to taste

To Temper:

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Red chilly - 1

Onion - 1 (Sliced thin)

Preparation:

1. Remove the greens from the stem, wash it thoroughly in running cold water, and chop roughly.

2. Cook the moong dhal in pressure cooker for 2 whistles with salt

and little water. I like the dish to be crunchy, hence I cooked the moong dhal firmly and not mushy

3. In a vessel, add the greens, little water, salt, garlic pods, and green chilly and allow it to cook in medium flame for 5-7 minutes. Stir in between, the greens would cook faster. Once they become tender and cooked, add in the cooked moong dhal (skinned split mung gram) and mix well. Allow it to cook for 2 more minutes. Switch off the flame once the dhal blends nicely with the greens.

4. Heat oil in a pan and throw in the tempering items one by one. Once the mustard seeds sizzles, add the urad dhal, red chilly followed by sliced onions. Saute well in low flame until the onions are browned. Browning of onions would take little time, so need to be patient in it. When it is browned well, add it to the dish and mix well.