Simple and flavorful dish with spinach, lentils and coconut!
Spinach as we all know is really rich in iron, vitamin A, B and C and very healthy so I try to include them as much as I can. I like them even raw :D! But I can’t have a whole cup raw. But surely I can have half a cup.I used the normal spinach, but I guess the authentic recipe includes manathakali keerai. So, if you could get it, you could use that. In India, We have so much of varieties of spinach like mulai keerai, paruppu keearai, thandu keerai, aria keerai and the list goes on. I always wanted to cook with that. When I went to India, I wanted to make some recipes there, click pictures and come. But I never got some time for that. I mainly wanted to make recipes with spinach and tender coconut. Wanted to make tender coconut kheer ( elaneer payasam), tender coconut idli and so on.
Molagootal is a dish form kerala, I made them long back before 3 years, wanted to make it again last month. It is very simple and flavorful dish, full of nutrients. It is great food for both yound and old. This way we can include both lentils and spinach into our food. Molagootal can be even made with mixed vegetables like winter melon, pumpkin and even broccoli. Most kerala recipes include coconut. Some say it is good for health and some say it is not. So, I try not including coconut always into my recipes. But some dishes it is a must 😉 and I do include them. This recipe is very easy to make. It is just the name 😉 which sounds difficult. I made this with some spicy baked cauliflower bites and steamed rice. You can use any kind of lentils.
I used this vessel of mine to place and take pictures, where my mom got this from India in October, but she taped it with keeping some pot or something inside. So, I have this brown tape everywhere. Do not think 😉 it’s my food that it is all over my vessel.\
Vegan Note: avoid ghee!
- Oil – 4 tsp
- Mustard – 1 tsp
- Curry leaves - 5
- Spinach – 3 cups, firmly packed
- Moong Dal (split green gram) – ½ cup
- Turmeric powder – a pinch
- Water – 3 cups
- Ghee – 1 tbsp
- Salt – 1.5 tbsp
To blend: - Coconut – 4 tbsp, (fresh blended coconut or dessicated coconut)
- Urad dal – 1 tbsp
- Red chili – 5
- Cumin Seeds – 2 tsp
- Pressure cook moong dal with 2 cups with a pinch of turmeric powder for 3 whistles. Once the pressure subsides, open the cooker and mash the dal well.
- In a wide pan, add 1 tsp of oil in medium flame, sauté the cumin seeds, red chilli, urad dal and when it is sautéed for few seconds, now add the coconut and sauté till they are light golden brown. Switch off and blend them without water.
- In the same pan, add 1 tbsp of oil in medium flame, add the mustard seeds and wait till it crackles, and then add the curry leaves and sauté well. Now add the blended coconut paste and sauté nicely for few seconds. But make sure you don’t burn them.
- Add the washed spinach and cooked dal, sauté them for a minute till they blend into the coconut paste well.
- Add 1 cup of water to this and add salt, mix well and close the pan with a lid and keep in medium to low flame. Let the flavor get into spinach and dal well.
- After 5 -6 minutes, open the lid, it should be in a consistency not watery and not dry.
- Top it a tbsp of ghee(Indian clarified butter)/ butter.
2. You can use any kind of lentils.
Taste great with steamed rice and potato roast, or raw banana roast.
