Monday, January 26, 2009

Beetroot Koottu

It has been a long time since I had had beetroot and somehow I started craving for beetroot dishes lately. That being said, I didn't want to try anything totally different with beetroot either. I wanted to try something that my Mom used to make back home and something that goes with rice or chappathi. So, I asked my Mom for her beetroot koottu recipe and tried it the past weekend. I must say that it came out very well :-). I'm happy.

Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):

Beetroots - 3 small fresh ones
Rice flour - 2 teaspoons
Salt to taste

To fry in 2 teaspoons of oil and grind:

Channa dhal - 3 teaspoons
Dried red chillies - 4
Coriander seeds - 2 teaspoons
Grated/powdered coconut - 4 teaspoons

For seasoning:

Cooking oil (I use refined peanut oil) - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves (optional) - a few

Procedure:

1. Fry channa dhal, coriander seeds, dried red chillies and coconut in oil, separately, one after the other and add them to a blender. The coconut should be fried only for about 20 seconds just to bring the flavor out. Grind them to a smooth paste.
2. In a bowl, add the ground paste from step 1 and rice flour, mix well and set aside.
3. Wash, peel and cut beetroot into small cubes.
4. Pressure cook the cut beets with just enough water for them to cook. Adding more water will make the dish too watery and the beets leave some water while they cook in the pressure cooker. So, use your own judgement :-).
5. Once the beets are cooked, add salt and the paste from step 2 and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for about 5 minutes and turn off the stove.
6. In a pan, add some oil and when it gets heated, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Then add the urad dhal and asafoetida and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color. Turn off the stove and add the mixture to the cooked beets.
7. Garnish with curry leaves. Beetroot koottu is ready :-).

It can be served with rice or rotis. Many people don't like beets, may be because of the ir sweetness, but I like them a lot. If it is made the right way, it tastes real good.

3 comments:

Bhagi said...

First of all..Thank you very much for this site.. And I hope you'll update all you recipes..I look forward to it....

Secondly, can you please mention the measures in the recipe come for how many people....?

Anonymous said...

Sure thing. I will update the recipe with the number of servings as well :-)

Bhagi said...

Cool...!! Great..!!