Vazhakai Pulippu Kootu
This is a recipe my aunt Pappu Athai makes and it’s unbelievably good. She made it for us first when we had visited her family in Thanjavur and served it as a side dish/curry for sambar. It was new to me, and a new combination to eat with sambar. I didn’t know the nuances of cooking to appreciate the individual ingredients at that age (high school), but as a grown up I just love the combination of the slightly sweet raw plantain, the sour tamarind, the heat of the sambar powder, and the nutty sweet fragrance of the coconut. Great with rice and papad!
Servings Prep Time
4people 15minutes
Cook Time
30minutes (including toor dal cooking time)
Servings Prep Time
4people 15minutes
Cook Time
30minutes (including toor dal cooking time)
Ingredients
  • 1medium raw banana/plantain
  • 1medium carrot
  • 1/2cup cooked toor dal
  • 1/2 – 1cup tamarind extract
  • 1tbsp readymade/prepared sambar powder
  • 1/2tsp pepper powder
  • 1tsp Saltor to taste
  • 1/2 cup grated coconut
  • 1/2tsp Turmeric powder
  • 1/2cup Boiled peanuts
To Temper
  • 1tbsp coconut oil
  • 1tsp Mustard seeds
  • 1tbsp urad dal
  • 1sprig Curry leaves
  • 1/2tsp Hing
Instructions
  1. If you don’t have cooked toor dal, pressure cook about 1/4 cup of toor dal with turmeric
  2. Peel and chop plantain and carrot into cubes suitable for kootu, and boil in the tamarind extract with salt, turmeric, and sambar powder, and pepper powder
  3. Both the vegetables cook in about 10 mins. Add the cooked, mashed toor dal. Pressure cook/IP cook peanuts for about 10 mins.
  4. Fry the coconut till reddish brown and add to the kootu
  6. Add the boiled peanuts
  7. Heat the coconut oil, add mustard seeds, hing, urad dal and curry leaves and pour over the kootu to finish. Serve with hot rice and papads!
Recipe Notes

My aunt says this is a Tirunelveli recipe. No specific name as far as she knows, but when I googled the ingredients, I came across several vazhakai pulippu kootu recipes that are similar, so that’s what I am calling this. This is an amazingly delicious kootu and easy to make – no frying of ingredients, no grinding etc. Simply delicious!