Paruppu Usili Made Healthier With Whole Legumes

Here is how you can make your paruppu usili more nutritious by using whole legumes instead of deskinned dals…

Paruppu Usili is a dish that is oft-repeated in Tamil, especially veg, kitchens, as it is an excellent source of protein. It is a dry dal crumble, which can be mixed with veggies, sevai (rice noodles) or poha to make interesting dishes.

Here is what everyone knows:

• The preparation for paruppu usili usually starts with soaking tuvar dal and channa dal for a couple of hours.
• The soaked dal is ground with red chillies, turmeric and salt into a thick, coarse paste*.
• This mixture is patted into small vadas or rolled into small balls and steamed in a modak steamer or idli plate.
• The cooked dal balls are then crumbled and sautéed in coconut oil, with a tempering of mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida and curry leaves. The resultant aromatic and golden-hued dal crumble is the actual paruppu usili.
• This is then tossed with the desired quantity of boiled veggies like ring beans, French beans, cluster beans, snake gourd, cabbage, capsicum, carrot, sweet corn or banana blossoms. You can use one of these veggies or an assortment. 
• Veggie paruppu usili can be mixed with rice and ghee, and enjoyed with raita. Or it can be had as a dry subzi with rice and mor kuzhambu or vathal kuzhambu.
• Interestingly, paruppu usili (with or without vegetables) can be mixed with soaked poha or cooked sevai (rice noodles) to make a scrumptious and wholesome tiffin.  

*Bonus tip: To make a quick and fail-safe paruppu urundai kuzhambu, make small balls with the coarse paste and cook them with minimal oil in a paniyaram pan. If you are using a cast iron pan, you just need to drizzle a little oil. Once well cooked on all sides, drop the balls into vatha kuzhambu or mor kuzhambu, to make delicious paruppu urundai kuzhambu!  

A healthy twist to paruppu usili

I tried making paruppu usili with whole legumes instead of deskinned dals and the result was as tasty as the traditional one. What you get in the bargain is a lot more nutrition, especially fibre.

• Take three-fourths of a cup of mixed whole legumes - you can use a mix of any legumes of your choice in any proportion.
• Fill the remaining quarter of the cup with tuvar and chana dal (just to balance the colour).
• Wash and soak the legume mix overnight (or at least 5-6 hours).
• The rest of the procedure to make paruppu usili with this mix, is just the same as regular paruppu usili.

Using whole legumes instead of deskinned dals, wherever possible, is an interesting way to make your dishes more nutritious, without compromising even one bit on the taste! You can also try this hack for other dal-based dishes like paruppu usili, adai and paruppu urundai kuzhambu.

Happy experimenting! See you soon with more such ideas.

By Janani G. Vikram