Yellow Pumpkin Dal Curry

- Submitted by Beryl

(Mattanga Parippu Curry, Kaddu wali Dal)

Yellow pumpkin is very nutritious vegetable available in almost all vegetable shops. Yellow pumpkin is used in making pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, sambar, halwa, kheer etc. In today's recipe, we will cook yellow pumpkin with dhal and coconut paste. This is a typical South Indian style of preparing dal. The coconut paste can be skipped in the recipe but it adds a good taste. 

Yellow Pumpkins, also known as Parangikai or mathanga or kaddu are very healthy and is rich in fibre, potassium and Vitamin C. In fact, all squash or gourd varieties have numerous health benefits. These are known as 'thanni kai' (watery vegetables) in tamil. If you don't have yellow pumpkin, you can use the other squash varieties like white pumpkin (ash gourd), bottle gourd or butternut squash also to prepare this pumpkin dal. When pumpkin and dhal are cooked together it makes an awesome curry. It goes well with rice.

Recipe for Pumpkin Dal Curry

Preparation Time : 10 minutes
Cooking Time : 20 minutes
Serves : 4

Ingredients

• Yellow Pumpkin pieces - 2.5 cup
• Dhal (moong or toor dhal) - 1 cup
• Salt - as necessary
• Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
• Red Chili powder - 1 tsp

For Grinding

• Coconut grated - 1/2 cup
• Green chilies - 5 nos
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Shallots - 5

For Tempering

• Sunflower or any other cooking oil - 3 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 2 tsp
• Curry leaves- 8
• Dry red chilies - 3-4

Method

1. First wash and cut the pumpkin, green chillies, shallots and green chilies into small pieces. Remove the pumpkin skin carefully, as it's bit hard to remove. Also grate the coconut.
2. In a mixie jar, add grated coconut, shallots, green chilies, cumin seeds and little water. Grind well into a nice paste and keep it aside.
3. Now wash and cook the dal in pressure cooker for about 3 whistles by adding sufficient water, salt and turmeric powder. Once done, remove it from the stove and keep it aside. Do not open the cooker till all pressure is released. 
4. In a wide pan, add chopped pumpkin pieces, few shallots, little water and salt and allow it to cook. After few minutes, add red chili powder, turmeric powder and mix well. Add another 1 cup of water and cook properly by covering with a lid.
5. Once the pumpkin is cooked soft, add the grated coconut paste from the mixie jar and the cooked dal from the pressure cooker. Mix everything properly and add sufficient water. Check the taste and add salt and red chili powder at this stage if necessary.
6. Allow this to boil by stirring in between. Once boiled, switch off the stove. 
7. Now let's make the tempering. In a dry pan, heat sunflower oil. When oil gets heated add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, dry red chillies and curry leaves one by one and stir. 
8. Reduce the flame so that it doesn't turn the garnishing things to black in colour. Once the seeds pop, pour this over the already prepared curry. Pumpkin dal is ready to serve with rice. 

Variations

• Any kind of dhal like moong dal, masoor dal or toor dhal can be used to prepare this recipe. Each one gives a slightly different taste. 
• Any cooking oil can be used for preparing this recipe. 
• Some people add bit of sugar or jaggery at the end of preparation to enhance the taste. Its purely optional.

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