PARUPPU THOGAIYAL (A chutney made with Lentils)

PARUPPU THOGAIYAL (A chutney made with Lentils)

After the Diwali snacks and sweets onslaught, I am thinking of foods which are easy to digest and lighter on the stomach. Togayal is one such dish which usually is a treat to the taste buds and light on the stomach as well. Thogayal is generally served as an accompaniment to a meal.

I made bottle gourd kootu and paruppu thogayal and it felt like a slice of heaven.

Paruppu thogayal can be eaten with Idly, dosai or any snack. We can also eat this by mixing it with hot rice and a dollop of ghee or some gingelly oil.

This thogayal can be made with Moong dal or toor dal. I used moong dal as it’s a healthier option.

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Ingredients

Yellow split Moong dal / Pigeon Pea (Toor dal) – 1 cup

Coconut – 2 tbsps (Freshly grated)

Dry red chilli – 1 (To taste)

Curry leaves – A sprig

Peppercorns – 1 tsp

Asafetida – ½ tsp

Salt as per taste

Oil – 1-2 tbsp

Method

Heat oil in a Wok (kadhai), Add the Yellow split moong dal or Toor dal (whichever you are using) and the red chillies and roast until the dals turn pink and the chillies turn plump. Keep aside on a plate. Dry roast the peppercorns and keep aside. Now add the coconut, salt, curry leaves and asafetida and roast until the coconut is light pink in color and a lovely aroma is emanating, allow this to cool down as well.

Now, run the roasted dal mixture in the dry mill of your blender to a coarse powder consistency. Keep aside.

After this, run the roasted coconut. Mix the dal mixtures and coconut mixture together.

Check for the salt, if required, add at this stage Run once more in the blender with some water(about 4-5 tablespoonful), This time don’t run the blender too much, just one spin would be enough. Remember, don’t make it a fine powder. The mix should be coarse.  

This should be coarse as shown in the picture not too fine. If you grind all the ingredients together and not separately as directed then you will notice that the dals don’t get powdered and if you run it too much to ensure that the dals get powdered then the mixture will be too fine and not so tasty. All the ingredients get grounded at different levels hence it has to be done separately. The best way to grind it is always using a stone manual grinder and if not you can achieve the similar taste if you grind in the wet/dry automated grinder which we use nowadays to grind idly/dosa batter.