Keerai molagootal is a traditional palakkad special dish South Indian rice accompaniment/ side dish prepared with spinach and dal. Freshly ground spice-paste gives a nice flavor to the keerai kootu. Quick one-pot spinach dal curry which can be prepared with Instant pot/ Pressure cooker.
Keerai kootu and Keerai thengai curry are the dishes my Amma makes with spinach. Growing up I was not a big fan of spinach but because of its healthy benefits she somehow managed to make eat it. Coconut flavor in spinach dishes made me like this iron rich vegetable. Keerai pappu become my favorite in recent years.
Amma makes a thick kootu and we take it as a side dish for Rasam/ Milagu Kuzhambu/ Vethakuzhambu. Now a days I started making it in a gravy-like consistency and we mix it with rice use it as a rice accompaniment.
Keerai Molagootal is prepared with channa dal/ moong dal with some vegetable or combination of veggies. Freshly roasted and ground paste makes kootu super delicious. Usually I use green chilli for kootu like Cabbage kootu and Pumpkin kootu, and red chilli for Poricha kootu and Keerai Milagu kootu.
When it comes to keerai Molagootal both Amma and MIL use moong dal for the preparation. Sometime back we had South Indian thali in Indian restaurant, and keerai kootu was one among the dishes served. They added little channa dal to the kootu and liked that variation so now a days little channa dal always goes to my keerai kootu.
Spinach kootu can be prepared in pressure cooker and instant pot. Coconut gives nice flavor for the kootu. Friend of mine once told Kerala dish, keerai molagtal is also prepared in a similar way. In Keerai Molagootal, Urad dal is used, like in poricha kootu.
Roasted Coriander seeds give aromatic flavor to the kootu. This is tamil brahmin style, no onion - no garlic version kootu. If you are looking for quick one pot recipes, this one is perfect. Except the dry roasting part, kootu is pretty much easy. Put everything into pressure cooker/ instant pot stir once and cook, kootu is ready
Kootu recipe collection in TMF
Keerai Milagu Kootu
Ingredients
- Spinach - 150 grams
- Moong dal or toor dal - 1/3 cup
- Channa dal - 2 tbsp
- Salt - as needed
- Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
- Water - 1 cup + 3/4 cup
To grind:
- Grated coconut fresh/frozen - 1/4 cup
- Urad dal - 1/2 tbsp
- Cumin seed - 1/2 tsp
- Pepper - 1/4 tsp
- Red chilli - 2
To temper:
- Coconut oil - 1/2 tbsp
- Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
- Urad dal - 1 tsp
- Red chilli - 1
- Curry leaves - few
- Asafotida - generous pinch
Instructions
- Dry roast the ingredients gives under "to grind" except coconut into golden brown. Add coconut give a quick stir. Switch off and let it cool down. Grind into a paste with litter water
- Switch on the instant pot in sauté mode and add oil and when the oil is hot add the ingredients under "to temper" let it splutter
- Add spinach, moong dal, Channa dal and mix well
- Add the ground paste, turmeric powder, asafotida, water; mix well
- Switch the instant pot to manual mode, cook on high temperature for 21 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally. Add salt; mix well
Notes
- Coconut oil gives nice flavour to the Kootu, any other oil can be used used
- Adjust the water according the consistency you prefer
- If you think kootu is watery let it boil for sometime in sauté mode
- kootu can also be cooked in pressure cooker. Put everything in pressure cooker and cook for 3 whistles
- If you prefer to cut down coconut. Cumin-pepper powder can be used for instead of spice paste
- Adjust the spice according to your taste
Spinach - 100 grams
Moong dal - 1/3 cup
Channa dal - 2 tbsp
Salt - as needed
Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
Water - 1 cup + 3/4 cup
To grind:
Grated coconut (fresh/frozen) - 1/4 cup
Urad dal - 1/2 tbsp
Cumin seed - 1/2 tsp
Pepper - 1/4 tsp
Red chilli - 2
To temper:
Coconut oil - 1/2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Red chilli - 1
Curry leaves - few
Asafotida - generous pinch
Method:
- Dry roast the ingredients gives under "to grind" except coconut into golden brown. Add coconut give a quick stir. Switch off and let it cool down. Grind into a paste with litter water
- Switch on the instant pot in sauté mode and add oil and when the oil is hot add the ingredients under "to temper" let it splutter
- Add spinach, moong dal, Channa dal and mix well
- Add the ground paste, turmeric powder, asafotida, water; mix well
- Switch the instant pot to manual mode, cook on high temperature for 21 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally. Add salt; mix well
You have lot of Kootu recipes in your blog...This one is so different with the addition of pepper and looks delicious,Vid....
Where have you mentioned the ingredients separately for ‘to grind’ and ‘to temper’ I just a see a long list with all the ingredients. Even if you mentioned separately you can mention it once again so it will be easy for readers to follow and not scroll up and down often. Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback Priya, I understand what you say. Will change my format in my future post
I have edited and updated this post