Collard Greens with Chana Dal

Ingredients:
Collard Greens - 250 gms
Chana Dal/Split Bengal Gram/Split Chickpeas - 3 tbsp
Red Onion - 1 big
Garlic - 4 big cloves
Coriander/Cilantro Leaves - few sprigs
Cumin/Jeera Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cayenne Pepper/Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric/Haldi - 1/8 tsp
Chat Masala or Aamchur - 1/4 tsp
Garam Masala or any other spice mix - 1/4 tsp
Salt
Oil

Method:
1. Soak Chana dal in water for about an hour.
2. Finely chop onions and cilantro. Crush the peeled garlic cloves. Chop washed collard greens medium or fine. Discard the tough mature stems of the greens.
3. Heat 1 - 2 tbsp oil in a pan and add cumin, crushed garlic. Saute for a minute or two. Add onions and saute till onions turn soft. Now add soaked chana dal and a cup of water. Cook it covered for 15 - 20 minutes. (Alternately, soaked chana dal can be pressure cooked as well.) Add more water if required.
4. When chana dal is cooked well, add chopped collard greens. Cook it covered at low flame for about 5 minutes. The greens will start wilting.

5. Add salt, turmeric, chat masala, garam masala, cayenne pepper and chopped cilantro. Continue cooking till all the ingredients are mixed well and you get the desired consistency.
6. Serve Collard Greens Sabji with roti or rice.

Indian Dal / Lentils

Lentils, known as Dal are a staple in an Indian diet, especially vegetarian. For me, dal is comfort food. 5 different dal varieties - Toor, Moong, Chana, Masoor and Urad are commonly used in Indian sweet and savory delicacies. You can cook dal with just one kind or a mix of two or more. I generally cook dal with 1:1 Toor and Moong dals. But then, we like Panchmel or Panchratna Dal too, which is made of all five. Most dal recipes have Toor dal as the primary ingredient. It is also known as Toovar or Arhar dal or Split Pigeon Peas . Some of our family favorite dal recipes are Dalitoy (Konkani Dal) Tadka Dal Among all lentils, moong dal and masoor dal take lesser time to cook. Moong dal is also known as Split Green Gram or Split Mung Bean . Moong dal is also used in making sweet dishes like Mung Dal Kheer Mung Dal Puranpoli Chana dal is also known as Split Bengal Gram or Split Chickpeas . Chana Dal takes a little more time to cook as compared to toor dal....

Naval Kol Bhaji / Kohlrabi Stir-fry

Green Kohlrabi called as Navalkol in Marathi and Navilkosu in Kannada, belongs to the cabbage family. My Mom used to make this stir fry very often. Just like cabbage, this vegetable in available in two colors - green and purple. I was quite hesitant about the purple one, as I haven't seen that back in India. Anyway, I picked the green bulbs and Navalkohl Bhaji with Chana Dal was part of our healthy vegetarian meal today.

Surti Val Papdi Bhaji

My Mom used to make Val Papdi Bhaji in a simple way with few ingredients. This is the first time I gave it a try here in my US kitchen. This stir fry does require little more oil, as no water is added for cooking. Dal Rice tastes great with this sauteed Papdi. I tried this Bhaji once with frozen Surti Papdi and I was not happy with the result. I prefer fresh Papdi for this recipe, which I can only find in the local Indian store. I am not sure if Val Papdi is called as Navy Bean or Fava Bean in English.

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