Zucchini Kootu

Did I tell you that I have a vegetable garden for the first time this year? My gardening was limited to growing some herbs in planters till last year. This year, I planted green beans, tomatoes and one of my summer favorites zucchini. There are plenty of flowers on zucchini plants and three of them have formed into cute, tiny zucchini so far. Ask me how many became big and how many did I use in cooking? None, courtesy of a bunny visiting my yard. I have already got some green beans which I cooked last week. But, I have given up the hopes of ever cooking the zucchini that I grew. So, I went and bought zucchini from the store. Pathetic, isn't it?

My mother made kootu a lot. She served it with rice. You can use this recipe with many other vegetables like chayote squash/ seeme badanekayi, spinach/palak, cucumber, green beans etc. This is a great recipe for those who do not eat tamarind for a reason since it doesn't use any.

Ingredients:

Toor dal - 3/4 cup pressure cooked with turmeric and a drop of oil - See Notes.
Oil - 1/4 tsp
Coconut - 1/3 cup grated (You can increase this to 1/2 cup or more if you like coconut taste)
Zucchini - 1 large peeled and cut into big chunks (Or any other vegetable of your choice)
Chana dal /Kadale bele - 2 TBSP
Urad dal / Uddina bele - 2 TBSP
Black Pepper / Menasu - 1/2 TBSP or more if you like it spicier
Red chillies / Kempu menasinakayi - 4 (Not Byadagi kind. If using byadagi, increase this and pepper)
Hing  - 2 big pinches
Salt - to taste

Method:
In a sauce pan, boil zucchini (or other vegetables) in enough water with some salt. When it is cooking, in another pan, roast red chillies, chana dal, urad dal, black pepper with 1/4 tsp of oil till they are nicely roasted and golden in color. Let them cool down a bit. Grind the roasted ingredients, hing with coconut into a thick paste. You can use water to facilitate the blender but not make it too watery. When the vegetables / zucchini is cooked, add the cooked dal to it. Mix the ground paste with a little bit of water and break the lumps in the ground paste and mix it to the dal vegetable mixture. Adjust the salt and bring it to a boil. Be careful after adding the ground paste since if you don't stir occasionally, it'll stick to the bottom and burn. After simmering for a couple of minutes, turn off the heat. Serve with rice.

Notes:
This can be served with rotis or chapathis if you make it a little thicker. Use more dal if you want to serve with rotis or chapathis. You can use chana dal instead of toor dal. In that case, use only watery vegetables like zucchini, long squash, chayote squash, cucumber.

Enjoy!!