First thing one notices about fresh fenugreek is how beautiful and delicate the leaves are. Then the smell, aromatherapy in truest sense, when pressure cooked with toor dal or sautéed with potatoes, any other vegetable, the leaves release wonderful fragrance. ‘Johnson and Johnson-A family company’, who makes money by beguiling the families with air fresheners and scented oils, if they get the whiff of fresh fenugreek, you bet, you’d see an ayurvedic or eastern themed fenugreek scented oil on shop shelves for sure.
Fenugreek is one of those green leafy veggies, looks innocently innocuous but when cooked, dazzles & grabs your attention by its wonderful aroma and makes you try and like it. For a dal-rice addict like me, nothing beats the taste of rice and dal made of fresh fenugreek leaves. Very tasty and nutrititous, it’s one of my favorite foods. Fenugreek and toor dal combination is a true and tested recipe, very popular in our Raayala seema region of Andhra, again one of those I learned from my mother.
Recipe:
One bunch of fresh fenugreek – washed and leaves plucked
4 fistfuls of Toor dal
1 medium sized onion and tomato – chopped
1o green chillies – finely chopped
Small lime sized tamarind
1/4 tsp of turmeric
Salt to taste
For popu or tadka :
1 tsp each of oil or ghee, mustard seeds, cumin and urad dal
1 garlic clove – finely chopped
Few curry leaves and few pieces of dry red chillies
Preparation:
Cook dal: In a pressure cooker, take toor dal, fenugreek leaves, onion, tomato, green chillies, tamarind and turmeric – add one glass of water and pressure cook them till 3 whistles. When the valve pressure is all released, remove the lid, add half teaspoon of salt and mash the dal using a wood masher to smooth paste.
Do the popu: In a deep bottomed vessel, heat one teaspoon of oil, add the remaining popu or tadka ingredients. Saute till the seeds start crackling, garlic turns red. Pour the cooked and mashed dal, stir well and cover. Tastes great with rice and chapati.
Fenugreek dal (Methi Dal or Menthi Kura Pappu) and rice with ghee.
Recipe Source: amma
Fenugreek is available both fresh and frozen in most of Indian grocery shops here in US
