Navarathri Special Sundal Recipe: Brown Channa (Chickpeas)/Karuppu Kondakadalai Sundal

Happy Navarathri !!

A while ago, I had blogged about Navarathri festivities at our home here along with a basic sundal recipe. This year, we’re not setting up the dolls or having any festive celebrations; however, I will blog the recipe for one type of Sundal each of the 9 days 🙂 A ‘sundal’ in Tamil stands for a kind of cooked salad. I know it sounds counterintuitive when I say that, but some ingredients making up this dish are raw and some are cooked. The main ingredient is some kind of legume or lentil, cooked until al dente. It is also flavoured with fresh ingredients like grated raw mango, grated carrot, fresh coriander, lemon, etc which are mixed in at the later stage after cooking. It can be served hot, warm or at room temperature. A Sundal is mostly savoury, although there exist sweet versions as well, traditionally flavoured using jaggery.

In this version, black/brown chickpeas (kondaikadalai in Tamil) are soaked overnight, pressure cooked and flavoured using tempering. An incredibly easy, delicious and nutritious dish 🙂 Read on for the recipe!

Ingredients

• Black channa – 1 cup
• Oil – 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Asafoetida/hing – a pinch
• Fresh grated coconut – 1/2 a cup
• Red chilies – 2 to 3, broken into smaller pieces
• Curry leaves – 7 to 8 leaves
• Salt to taste

Cooking the legume

1. Wash the black channa and cover with water (the level must be at least 2cms more than channa). Soak the black channa overnight, or for 6 hours. The legumes absorb most of the water and volume tends to almost double overnight.
2. Drain the channa and wash well under running water.
3. Take the washed channa, add 1/2 tsp salt. Add water in the ratio of 2.5 cups water for every cup of channa.
4. Pressure cook this for about 5-6 whistles.
5. Allow pressure to dissipate. Open the cooker and drain the water.

Tempering

1. Heat oil in a kadai.
2. Once oil is hot, add mustard seeds and allow to splutter.
3. Add curry leaves, broken red chillies and hing, saute this for 4-5 seconds until curry leaves are fried to a crisp.
4. Add the black channa to this, add salt to taste and mix well.
5. Add fresh grated coconut, mix well and switch off the stove.
6. Finally, squeeze the juice of half a lemon over this (optional).

Enjoy!! 🙂

 

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