Enjoy the essential spice mix that bring up any sundal to life! Keep it ready before the season and use in even in poriyal and mixed rice recipes.
One of the festivals my parents have celebrated for all their life is Navarathri. The full nine days of bommai golu, guests in the evening, music, the house is full and there is sundal, ladoo, appam, and so much treats out each day. Honestly, I wonder how amma juggled all these things together. To me it was flawless and gosh the people who have visited us during the time still fondly talk about how lovely it all was. When I started setting up my first golu, I found it a bit hard.
Guess what save my sundals during golu times ? Sundal podi!
What is Sundal podi?
During Navrathri the sundals are the take home snacks. To keep the variety going and to have a flavourful bean salad, the fairly straight forward spice mix is made in advance and stored. This is sundal podi ( curry podi) This is a roasted lentil mix with coriander seeds, sesame seeds (optional) and dry red chillies to flavour them.the premade powder is sprinkled on sundals while being made. This gives a spicy , aromatic change from the coconut chilli versions that are usually made.
Ingredients to make sundal podi
I am sure you will come across many variations of sundal podi as there are so many ingredients you can add to this mix. I make a rather simple version to keep. This allows me to add the rest of the flavours to the tempering when I am making the sundal. For my basic version of this sundal podi recipe I use
- Sesame oil: the roasting of the seeds, the channa and red chillies is done in sesame seed oil. This has a smoky flavour.
- Channa dal: skinned chickpea kernels are called Bengal gram. Yellow in colour, these have an earthy flavour.and are crisp to bite when roasted. These are the bulk of this podi.
- Coriander seeds: These are the dried seeds of the coriander plant. This is give a smokey aromatic flavour to the podi.
- Red chillies: the podi is as spicy mix, the heat for the recipe comes from the dried red chillies. The resultant colour of the podi is dependent on the type of the chillies.
- Salt: Any variety of cooking salt is enough.
Lets make sundal podi
Once you have gathered these ingredients making the sundal podi is only about roasting and powdering.
- Set a wok to heat on medium heat.
- Into a wok add the oil, add the channa dal. Roast slowly with constant mixing.
- Once they turn aromatic, remove on to a plate.
- Now slow roast the coriander seeds, then remove it on to the plate.
- Now, add red chillies to the wok and roast slowly.
- Once the red chillies are breaking easily. Remove this as well and set aside to cool.
- Add all this to spice blender and make a coarse blend.
- Remove this into a bottle and keep it in a cool dry place.
How to store Sundal podi?
Sundal podi is best stored in airtight containers. This will stay good for almost 3 months in this way. To use, remove using a clean dry spoon.
How is sundal podi different from dosa molaga podi?
Dosa molaga podi is a spice mix that is mixed with oil to have with. The mix of lentils have black gram dal predominately along with channa dal, chillies and salt. The sundal podi however, has channa dal. It has whole coriander seeds and sesame seeds that add a lot of flavour. It need not be as spicy as the molagapodi as the tempering and the beans need flavour more than the heat from the dried red chillies. Usually in my molagapodi, I add curry leaves too and I have avoided it in this recipe.
Can we make this oil free?
Yes you can.you don’t need to add any oil to the lentils. Simply dry roast them. Then pulse them in the spice blender. What will be different in this podi is the slight differences in flavours.
Should the podi be a fine powder or a coarse powder?
I prefer rhe sundal podi to be a slightly coarse powder and not so fine. This is to help the podi potta sundal having a bit of a crunch that just mushy. However, if you like a smooth podi powder the mix really well. It doesn’t change the flavour.
How to use sundal podi?
- Soak the beans for 6 hours.
- Pressure cook them till soft yet holding its structure.
- Once the pressure releases, drain the beans.
- Alternatively, start with a can and drain the beans.
- Into the frying pan add oil, mustard seeds, dals and curry leaves and saute them well.
- When the mustard crackles add the beans and saute them.
- Sprinkle the sundal podi generously on top of the beans and stirfry them further till the beans are coated with the podi.
- Adjust the salt and remove from heat.
- The podi potta sundal is now ready.
How else can you use the sundal podi?
Sundal podi is great to mix up with cooked rice or poriyals, so it is tasty to add it to methi rice and cabbage puli saadam.
Sundal podi
Enjoy an essential spice mix that bring up any sundal to life. Keep it ready before the season and use in even in poriyal and mixed rices.
Equipment
- frying pan
- spice blender
- plate
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp sesame seed oil
- 1/2 cup Split bengal gram Channa dal, Kadala patrippu
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 12 long dry red chillies
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Set a heavy bottomed frying pan on the stove to heat to a medium heat.
- Add the oil, followed by channa dal.
- Roast the split bengal gram till it is aromatic and crisp.
- Remove it on to a plate.
- Now add the coriander seeds and red chillies and roast them well.
- The chillies will snap easily when ready.
- Remove these onto the same plate
- Allow this to cool for 15 minutes.
- Pulse these into a slightly coarse powder in the spice blender
- Store in clean airtight jars till use.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Other lentil spice powder recipes
Lentil based spice mixes are popular in South Indian cuisine. It comes in handy ad a condiments or also to flavour rice and stir-fried vegetable. Here are some that I have tried and found very useful.
Stay connected
The navratri season gets very busy in a flash. Hope you enjoy every moment of it with your family.make your life by meal prep this spice mix. When you test out our recipe, let us know if you love the flavours and how you used it. We always love to hear from you.
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Interesting !
Thanks Poonam. It is a good one to keep and use on veggies too.
Sundal podi is so essential during navratri. While I personally prefer a fresh thengai milagai seasoning for subdals, this is a very handy spice mix for naiverdyams on working days
That lovely recipe Seema, I always look for such spice mix, and especially with lentils. I would love to have this with my beans, would be so tasty.
Seema though we don’t make sundals for Navratri, I am going to make the sundal podi so that I can have healthy sundals as a part of my daily meal. Like that the sundal podi is not too spicy and needs very few ingredients. Thanks for trying out my idli podi recipe.