Gongura Pappu

The hot favorite of Andhra "Gongura", trust me the Gongura pachadi when eaten with hot rice and ghee is just an amazing experience, I remember when we went to Vijayawada, the hotel would have all the pachadi's seperately and we just forget about rasam/sambhar or any curry and just eat only the pickles. I must mention Kandi Podi and Palli Podi, I just cant stop eating if I have palli podi/gongura pachadi. Moreover Gongura contains high amount of iron and vitamins. There are different combinations with Gongura besides gongura pachadi, Gongura mutton is quite popular in Andhra. I will shortly post the Gongura pachadi but now lets see how to make this Gongura pappu.

Ingredients:

Bunch of Gongura leaves (sorrel greens) in accordance to 1 cup of toor dal
1 cup Toor dal
1 onion
2 green chilly
1 garlic clove
tamarind paste(optional)
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt
3 tbsp oil

Seasoning:
Mustard seeds
Cumin seeds
Urad dal
Red chilly
Curry leaves

Method:

There are different methods to prepare a dal, I find the below method easy and quick, so I adopt this method for most of my dals, unless for some specific ones.

1.Firstly, pluck the gongura leaves and clean them. In a pressure cooker, add 1 cup of toor dal and according to it, add the gongura leaves. For this, add about 2-21/2 cups of water. To this, add chopped onion, chopped green chilly, turmeric powder and few drops of oil, so that it doesnt stick to the cooker.

2.Pressure cook it till 3-4 whistles or according to your cooker. Carefully, remove the lid and use a Pappu Gutthi(masher) to mash the entire paste.
NOTE: People avoid adding the gongura to the cooker and prefer it to be cooked on low flame, you could do this, but this takes some time, and definitely the taste is much better, but I use the cooker to avoid time delays!

3.Now, take a tadka pan, add oil and all the other seasoning ingredients one by one and salt and now mix the dal to this.
NOTE: I don't add tamarind paste tot his since its already sour but if you really like to have a tangy taste then you could add some tamarind paste into the cooker before pressure cooking it.

This is a very simple recipe, but gongura and toor dal combination gives an awesome taste, eat this with hot rice and a little ghee great for a perfect Lunch!