Jun 25 2007
Thotakura pappu (Dal with Amaranth leaves)
The other day I found green thotakura – Telugu and Amaranth in English – in the local Indian store. This is the first time I found the green type(here in the US) and growing up this was the only type I knew. Come rainy season, our backyard used to be so full of these plants almost like weeds that the only dishes on the table would be thotakura stir fry or thotakura pappu(….actually it still is like that back home)
I was debating whether to cook it with moong dal and stir fry or make dal with toor. That evening we had a family with kids coming over for dinner so decided to make pappu/dal. The preparation is pretty simple. So let’s get started.
–ingredients————————————
- Amaranth – 1 bunch
- Toor dal – 1 cup
- Tamarind juice – 1 tbsp
- Tomato chopped – 1
- Fenugreek seeds – 2 tsp
- Chillies, red dry – 4
- Asafoetida – 1/2 tsp
- a pinch of turmeric
- Green chillies – 3
- Salt to taste
- Mustard and cumin seeds – 1 tsp
- Curry leaves – 5
- Coriander to garnish
- Garlic – 1 clove
–procedure—————————————
- Pressure cook toor dal, turmeric, tomato, amaranth and 1 tsp of fenugreek seeds. Keep aside.
- When it is safe to open the pressure cooker, remove the lid and place on stove top with medium heat. Add tamarind juice, and keep stirring.
- Meanwhile heat 1 tbsp of ghee or oil and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida, chopped garlic. Then add curry leaves, red chillies and fenugreek seeds. When the mustard seeds are done remove and add it to the dal above.
- Add salt and garnish with coriander. Serve hot with ash gourd or rice fritters.
Amaranth flower (this will go on to yied amaranth grains). Incidentally my next post will be about Amaranth grains. For the longest time I didn’t know our very own thotakura yielded amaranth grain 
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My first time here through Food Blog desom and was quite amazed to see all your lovely pics…..beautiful shots and your caption is so true, “a feast to the palate and the eye”
Shn
Shn – Awwww…. thank you sooo much. This is one of the best compliments Vindu ever got
I am taking a print out of this page so that I could identify Amaranth on my next visit to the Chinese store. I get so confused with all the greens there. Thank you so much for such a detailed post!
First time commentor , mostly a lurker. i envy you for getting the green variety and I had to comment. You have a great blog!
lovely looking dal. its my favorite. chala baga undhi!
Okay, let’s see if this works this time (lol)
I’ve heard of amarnath leaves but have never seen or used them. Your dal looks thick and flavourful. All I need now is a nice thick hunk of sada roti and a cup of tea and my dinner would be complete
One of our favourite recipes in our book “Cooking at home with Pedatha”, It is amazing how this same combination of dal and leaves can be treated so differently by all. Your recipe seems very simple and intersting as well. The fresh look of the leaves that you have shown is most welcoming.