UNDER THE SPELL OF AMARANTH Filed under ( Dals/Gravies and Curries, Dry veg.and Side Dishes )

"Amaranth greens, also called Chinese spinach, hinn choy or yin tsoi , callaloo, thotakura (telugu) , tampala, or quelite, are a common leaf vegetable throughout the tropics and in many warm temperate regions. It is very popular in Andhra Pradesh. They are a very good source of vitamins including vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C, riboflavin, and folate"

This is what the Wikipedia says ,so I thought, if something can be that good ,why not give it a try?...and I was not at all disappointed, in fact it's now a part of my regular meals, it's so great, apart from being so healthy, they taste sooo good!. This is the first dish I ever tried- combining it with toor dal and the results were amazing!

                                   the beautiful red variety

                                the green variety- chopped up

RECIPE FOR AMARANTH -DAL

Ingredients-

(serves-3-4)

• toor dal-1/3 cup,(washed and drained)
• fresh amaranth leaves-2 cups, (washed & chopped)
• tamarind- a walnut sized ball, (soaked in 1/2 cup water)
• cumin seeds-1/2 tsp
• sambhar powder-1 tsp
• green chilli- 1 chopped
• asafetida(hing)- a pinch
• curry leaves- 5-6
• turmeric powder(haldi)-1/2 tsp.
• oil- 1 tbsp.
• salt to taste
• sugar-1/4 tsp.

Method-

Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add cumin seeds and curry leaves as well as the dal ,fry for a few mins., next add the green chilli ,sambhar pwdr., asafetida, turmeric,and the amaranth leaves, along with 1 cup of water remember to wash the leaves very well, so that any little particles of mud sticking to it are washed off, close the lid of the cooker and give at least 4-5 whistles, let pressure drop by itself.

Open the cooker,adjust quantity of water, give it a good stir to mash up everything together,it should be thick, lastly add the strained tamarind juice, salt and sugar, cook for another 5-10 minutes. Serve with either fresh-hot rice or chapatis along with papad and yogurt- a complete meal.

Note-Toor dal (yellow pigeon peas) is called tuvar dal (Gujarati), arhar dal (in Uttar Pradesh & Bengal) or kandi pappu (Telugu), tuvara parippu (Malayalam) or tuvaram paruppu in (Tamil).

   amaranth-dal , rice and papad-under the golden rays of the sun