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Radish tops kootu is a mild south Indian curry that pairs well with rice and rotis. The radish leaves are tender and an exciting way to add greens to your winter menu.
We are stuck with just kale or Swiss chard during winter months. Since I go big on the green leafy veggies, it is pretty boring to just have these around. However, there is plenty of radish, carrots, beets and cabbages. So, here we are utilizing these fresh radish tops again. When we get some fresh radish tops we make
mooli ki saag
or
radish tops poriyal.
However my current favorite is this pepper flavoured parippu kootu with mullangi keerai. Try it with me?
Ingredient to make mullangi keerai kootu
Radish tops: The leafy parts of the radish root is the radish tops or radish greens. They are totally edible. The leaves are tender and the stalk has a crunch to it. The taste mildly of the peppery radishes. Once cooked the leaves soften completely and lend well with the masala and the dal. You can substitute this with beet greens, English spinach, bokchoy or amaranth leaves.
Channa Dal: the thickness of this kootu recipe comes from the added cooked channa dal.Channa dal is skinned and split chickpeas. You can use tur dal, mattar dal ( split peas), masoor dal ( red lentil) or moong dal ( split green gram to make this recipe. However, I make this with channa dal as I like the bite of the dal against the softness of the greens.
Seasonings and spices: salt and lots if crushed black pepper make most of the flavours needed for this kootu. The mild spiciness is from the black pepper and not from the chillies.
For the masala mix: the coconut masala paste used in this recipe is different from the other kootu recipes. For this, as usual you will need freshly grated or frozen coconut. Then you add cleaned shallots and tomato that give the flavour and colour along with cumin seeds.
Let’s make this parippu kootu
Prep the greens: this is probably the hardest (not really ) part of the recipe. Separate the tops from the radish and check each leaf to ensure they have no insects or bite marks. Remove any leaf that doesn’t look good. Wash in plenty of water for a couple of times and set it aside to drain.
Once drained chop it into small pieces. You don’t have to finely mince them. Cover and set this aside till you are ready to cook.
Cook the dal: Wash and pressure cook the channa dal with double the water. Once the pressure releases naturally,remove the cooked dal and fluff it a bit. There is no need to mash it.
Cook the greens: Into the cooking pot add a tsp.of oil and stirfry the green for a minute. Add salt, sprinkle a bit of water and cover and cook the greens till soft.
Grind the coconut masala: into the blender add the grated coconut, tomato, shallots, green chillies and cumin seeds with about one forth cup of water. Blend this to a smooth paste.
Cook with the dal and coconut masala: to the greens which have softened add the dal and the smooth coconut masala. Now mix well and adjust water to get a semi solid consistency. Check the salt and adjust that too. Mix well and let the kootu simmer for 5 to 7 minutes. The kootu is now ready to be served.
-
- radish greens chopped.
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- cooking radish greens with seasoning
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- cooked channa dal
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- cooking with the dal
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- add the coconut masala
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- Kootu simmering
What is the best combination with this kootu?
Have you tried kootu pasta?
To vary it a bit with a kootu, keep your forks ready and try this.
Toss some cooked pasta into this kootu with some shredded cheddar on top, bake it in the oven to make fusion kootu pasta. OMG I can’t describe how good this is!
Radish tops kootu
Radish tops kootu is a mild south Indian curry that pairs well with rice and rotis. The radish leaves are tender and an exciting way to add greens to your winter menu.
Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 20 minutes mins
cooking the dal 40 minutes mins
Course Side Dish
Cuisine gluten free, Indian, South indian
for the dal
- 1/2 cup Channa Dal
- 1 cups drinking water
for the greens
- 2 cups radish leaves chopped
- salt to taste
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
for the coconut masala
- 1 medium Tomato
- 2 small shallots
- 1/4 cup grated coconut
- 4-6 black pepper corns
Into the pressure cooker, wash and add the channa dal and the water.
Pressure cook for 3 whistles. Let the pressure release naturally.
Remove and set aside the dal.
Wash clean and chop the radish leaves.
Add these into a cooking pot with turmeric and salt.
Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
You may need to sprinkle a bit of water if the leaves look a bit dry.
Once cooked, add the dal, mix well and simmer.
As the mix simmers, grind the coconut masala mix.
Into the blender add coconut, tomato, shallots and pepper corns.
Grind into a smooth paste with 1/4 cup water.
Add this mix into the simmering dal.
Stir well.
Mix and simmer for another minutes till the kootu is well incorporated with the elements.
Kootu is now ready to be served.
It is perfectly ok to replicate this recipe with any edible greens that you have at hand.
Keyword Indian vegetarian dinner, leafy green recipes, Winter warmers
Collaboration
This winter greens recipe is a part of the collection put together by the members of Shh cooking secretly. I loved working with Sujata Roy on this one, realising food transcends borders. Stay connected
If you have been with our blog for a while you would have figured that we love green vegetables any time of the year. Hope you like making use of nutritious radish tops through our recipes. When you make some, share how the recipe turned out for you. We love to hear your feedback and improve at every step. Leave your comments in the discussion below and stay subscribed for regular updates.
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