Green Beans Paruppu Usili
My recipe for south Indian paruppu usili features green beans sauteed with spiced, steamed and scrambled lentils. Serve as a side dish with any Indian entree, particularly when you need extra protein in your meal.
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 128kcal
Equipment
- microwave safe bowl
- Wok or wide skillet
Ingredients
- 1½ pounds green beans (trimmed, any strings removed, and chopped very finely).
For lentil scramble
- ⅓ cup toor dal (arhar dal/tuvar dal/tuvaram paruppu/split pigeon peas)
- ⅓ cup chana dal (Bengal gram dal)/kadalai paruppu)
- 2 dried red chili peppers (sivappu milagai)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric (haldi/manja podi)
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera/jeeragam)
- Salt to taste
For tempering
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds (rai/kadugu)
- 1 tablespoon urad dal (black gram/ulutham paruppu)
- ¼ teaspoon asafetida or hing (hing/perungayam)
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Make the lentil scramble
- Soak the chana dal and toor dal in enough water to cover for 30 minutes. Blend with the red chili peppers, turmeric and cumin seeds into a smooth paste, adding water, a little at a time, only if necessary.
- Transfer the paste to a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for two minutes. Scrambled the steamed paste with a fork, then microwave again for two more minutes. The paste should have set by now. Let it cool and then crumble into pea-sized bits. Set aside.
Temper and cook the green beans
- Heat the oil in a wok or skillet. Add the mustard seeds and, when they pop, add the urad dal and asafetida. Saute for a minute until the dal begins to turn lightly golden.
- Mix in the chopped green beans and add a bit of salt. Saute the green beans 8-10 minutes until they are tender but still have a slight bite to them.
- Add the crumbled lentils to the green beans and mix well. Saute the paruppu usili until the lentils begin to turn reddish-brown, about 10 more minutes. Turn off heat and serve.
Notes
Ingredient notes
- Lentils: The toor dal and chana dal blend is key for the flavor and texture of this dish, so don't be tempted to substitute. Urad dal, added to the tempering, gives a delicious crunch.
- Red chili peppers: Use any moderately spicy dried red chilli like Kashmiri chillies, Byadgi chillies or Mexican arbol chilli peppers. If you have red pepper flakes on hand, you can use ½ to 1 teaspoon instead of the dried chili peppers. You need some heat in the lentil scramble, but you can tweak it to your preference.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 serving | Calories: 128kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 0.4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Potassium: 255mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 790IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 71mg | Iron: 2mg