Pudalangai Kootu | Pudalangai Paruppu Kootu | Snake Gourd Side-Dish Restaurant Style | Hotel Style Pudalangai Kootu

How many of you love the side-dishes in a meals platter in vegetarian hotels? Though am not a big fan of vegetarian recipes or the veg meal, I do love to have side-dishes in such platters. One among them is the pudalangai paasi paruppu kootu, as pudalangai is one among my favorite vegetable. And the other being cabbage poriyal which you can check out here. This kootu tastes great, has a very mild flavor, is not at all spicy and is so appealing with a beautiful tender yellow color. This humble dish goes well with any spicy curry and rice especially with kaara kulambu, Yumm!!! That would be a finger-licking good platter right? Guess I've teased you enough so lets not keep you waiting. Here's how to prepare this dish. 

INGREDIENTS

Serves 3 as sides
Total Preparation Time - 20 minutes

1. Snakegourd / Podalangai - 1 (200 grams nearly)
2. Paasi Paruppu / Moong Dal / Skinned and split green gram - 2 handfuls (be generous to get a nice taste) 
3. Tomato - 1 (small) 
4. Shallots - 5 
5. Grated coconut - 2 tablespoons 
6. Curry leaves - From 2 sprigs
7. Red chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon (or) Green chilly - 1 (halved) 
8. Cumin seeds - 3/4 teaspoon 
9. Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon 
10. Asafoetida - 1 pinch
11. Turmeric powder - 2 pinches
12. Salt - As required
13. Oil - 2 tablespoons 

PREPARATION METHOD

• Wash snake gourd and peel/scrape off its skin. Then halve it and remove the soft stuff in the center. Now chop it into smaller pieces and set aside. (For a pictorial of how to chop pudalangai check out my pudalangai thengaipaal kootu. There I have not removed the skin, but here for this kootu you will have to remove the skin)
• To a blender add chopped shallots, cubed tomato, cumin seeds (1/2 tsp) and grind it into a very coarse mixture. Set the mixture aside. (See that you don't make a paste out of it, and also its okay to have chunky pieces in it) 
• To a cooker add moong dal, turmeric powder, asafoetida, salt and pour enough water so that there is an inch water above the lentils. Stir well and close the cooker with its lid. Pressure cook for 7 minutes on low flame. Remove from flame and set the cooked dal aside.(The dal should be well cooked)
• Place a pan on flame and pour oil, after it heats up, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds (1/4 spoon), curry leaves and let it splutter. 
• When done add the coarse onion tomato mixture and saute until the raw smell leaves.
• Now add the chopped snake gourd pieces and saute . 
• After a minute or so, add some water until the snake gourd pieces gets immersed well in water; then cook for about 2 to 3 minutes. 
• Now add the cooked dal and pour some more water if required. Keep stirring occasionally and try to blend all the ingredients together with your ladle. 
• Cook on high flame until the kootu becomes thick, flavor comes out well and the vegetable gets well cooked. 
• When the vegetable seems mushy and has got well blended with dal, remove from flame. 
• Serve hot!!

TIP 1: Peeling the skin will help the pudalangai get cooked well and blend with the dal to give you a perfect tasting kootu. 

TIP 2: You can also use kadalai parupu (chana dal or split bengal gram) to make this kootu. Just follow the same procedure. 

TIP 3: To make a zero-oil kootu just add all the ingredients and some water into a pressure cooker (except mustard and oil) and pressure cook for 10 to 12 minutes on low flame. This is a quicker way. If after pressure cooking you find the kootu watery just cook (not pressure cook) it on high flame for a few more minutes. 

TIP 4: You can prepare surakka kootu the similar way

Super tasty pudalangai kootu is now ready!! Serve it with some rice and spicy gravy of your choice and enjoy!!

For other Kootu recipes click here!! 
And for Poriyal recipes click here!!