Green Tomato Vermicelli

I planted few vegetable plants this summer. I had planted zucchini, green beans and tomatoes. I had issues with my vegetable plants. Bunny used to eat my zucchinis. Then, the green beans plants died due to zucchini leaves covering them up and blocking them from sunlight. Tomatoes are an entirely different story. The plants are filled with tomatoes. But, I cannot leave any of them to turn red on the plant. A bunny or a Raccoon (I don't know which one is doing this) is visiting and biting all the red ones. The only way to save my tomatoes was to pull them before they even got a shade of red. I leave them on the counter and they turn red eventually. But, I had plucked so many green tomatoes yesterday, I had to use up some before they turned red. I made green tomato vermicelli. This recipe is based on my mother's mustard rice recipe. I started making this using rice and green tomatoes. Since I was in a rush today and didn't have enough time to cook rice, let it cool down to make the rice I decided to use the vermicelli.

 Ingredients:
Green Tomatoes - 4 medium chopped into big chunks
Coconut - 1/2 cup grated
Green Chillies - 8 or more per taste
Hing - 2 generous pinches
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1 1/2 tsp divided use
Red Chillies - 2 broken
Curry Leaves - few
Chana dal/Kadale Bele - 1 TBSP
Urad dal / Uddina Bele - 1 TBSP
Peanuts - 4 TBSP
Oil - 4 - 6 TBSP
Salt - to taste
Cilantro - Chopped 4 TBSP
Vermicelli - 2 1/2 cups (You could use rice about 2 cups or rice sticks about 2 1/2 cups broken into 1" pieces)

Method:
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add salt and add vermicelli. Cook till soft. Drain and rinse with cold water. Rinse and spread on a plate to cool. If you are planning to use rice, cook rice and let it cool. Take coconut, 1 tsp of mustard seeds, turmeric, hing, green chillies and grind them in a blender/mixie. Do not add any water to it. When the mixture is fine ground, add the chopped green tomatoes to it and churn couple more times. Set aside. Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add the remaining 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds. When they splutter, add broken red chillies, curry leaves, chana dal, urad dal, peanuts. Let them all toast well. Now add the ground mixture to it. Let it cook. Do not add salt at this moment. Keep stirring occasionally till most of the water has evaporated. Add salt and let it cook down for couple more minutes till it is almost dry. Lower the heat. Add the cooled vermicelli and mix together gently. Adjust the salt and add the chopped cilantro. Cover with a lid and let it be on very low heat for about 5 minutes. Turn off. Serve hot or warm. It tastes good even when cold.

Notes:
You can make this with rice as mentioned above. You can make the paste and cook it till the stage before adding the vermicelli or cooked rice and cool it and store it in a jar in the refrigerator for about 1 week. You can mix the paste with cooked rice and the dish will be ready.

Enjoy!!