Kulith (Horse Gram) Usal

Hi there! How is everyone doing? Texas weather is really hot these days. Fortunately, mornings are still pleasant for a walk. After enjoying my walk, I am ready to take care of my first baby. My blog! My 9 year old is not too fond of my blog baby.

Today's recipe is a vegan, protein rich Marathi style Kulithachi Usal. Kulith is not so common in my kitchen. I cooked it after decades. Do give this a try if you like lentils.

Ingredients:

Kulith/Horse Gram/Hulga - 1/2 cup

Boiled Potato - 1 small (optional)

Red Onion - 1 big

Tomato - 2 medium

Garlic - 4 big cloves

Green Chili - 1

Black Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp

Turmeric/Haldi - 1/8 tsp

Usal Masala - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds/Jeera - 1 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Salt

How to cook Kulith Usal:

Soak dry Kulith in plenty of water for about 2 hours. Wash soaked kulith well. Drain all the water and set it aside overnight or longer to sprout.
Wash the sprouted Kulith well. Add 1 - 2 cups of water and cook it in a pressure cooker. Save the water used for cooking sprouts.
Finely chop onion, tomato and green chili. Grate or finely chop garlic.
Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds. After a minute or so, add onions. Saute on medium heat until onions soften. Add grated garlic and saute for another minute.
Add tomatoes, green chili and saute until tomatoes soften. Lower the heat and continue sauteeing until oil starts separating.
Now add all the seasonings - salt, turmeric, usal masala, black pepper. Saute at low heat for few seconds.
Lastly, add the cooked sprouts, chopped boiled potato and stir well. Depending on how thick or thin you want the usal to be, add water. You can use the water used for cooking sprouts too.

Taste for seasonings and garnish with cilantro. Serve Kulithachi Usal with Chapati, Rice or Pav. Enjoy!

Comments

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....

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