Thursday, June 20, 2013

Kosambari / Southern Indian Salad

Every cuisine has salads in it. Southern Indian cuisine calls it 'Kosambari' in Kannada, where I am from. Recently, I had made this salad and my neighbor happens to visit. I, being me (did I ever tell you that I fed the flooring guys every single day? no wonder they took few extra days to finish the job) had to offer her some and she loved it. She found it unusual for us to use lentils in a salad that too in raw form. That prompted me to write this post. Otherwise, this is no recipe at all and every Indian will know how to make it.
One Year Back - Super thick Tomato Garlic flat Bread
Two Years Back - Onion Creamcheese spread
Three Years Back - Quinoa Chickpeas Pulav
Ingredients: 
Carrots - 3 large peeled and grated
Mung dal / Dehusked, split mung beans - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Green chillies or red chillies - 3 or as per taste (chopped if green chillies, broken if red chillies)
Lime - 1
Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida / Hing - a generous pinch (optional)
Curry leaves - few
Cilantro - chopped 2 TBSP
Coconut scrapings - 3 TBSP (optional, I have not used it)

Method:
Soak the mung dal in enough water for 45 minutes to an hour till soft. Rinse and drain completely. In a bowl, take the grated carrots. Add the drained mung dal to it. In a small pan, heat oil. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add asfoetida/hing, curry leaves, green or red chillies. When they get toasted, turn off the heat and add the contents of the pan to the bowl containing carrots and dal mixture. Add salt, lime juice, cilantro and coconut if using. Mix well and adjust the salt if needed. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Notes:
This can be made using cucumber too. Either use mung dal or use chana dal / dehusked, split chickpea dal.

Enjoy.
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4 comments:

  1. Though this is so simple, it always is so refreshing to make this...

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  2. How many servings is the above?

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    Replies
    1. Traditionally this is eaten as part of a meal with many other dishes so we eat only very less of this. In that way, this is about 6 - 8 servings. But if I want to eat this as salad, it will be less.

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