Tomatillo Poricha Kootu – Tomatillo Dal

Nupur gave us the liberty of trying an unknown vegetable - X, for her A-Z of Indian Vegetables. There are many vegetables that I haven’t tried yet - artichokes, patty pan squash, mustard greens, to name a few. But when I went to the market these green beauties caught my attention. I have to admit that I have tried tomatillo once in a soup. It was too sour for my taste and I stayed away from it for almost a year now. Since this is an opportunity to try something new, I decided to give tomatillos a second chance.

I wanted to carefully pair them with ingredients that will compensate the sourness. My mom prepares this dal or kootu using green, unripe tomatoes. Since tomatillos look like green tomatoes I decided to use them in this recipe. You can use other vegetables like chayote squash (chow chow), tomatoes (goes great with chapatti), carrot etc.

While buying tomatillos, buy small green ones. They look like green tomatoes with husk. The husk says a lot about its freshness. It should wrap the fruit tightly and should be light brown in colour. It should not be shriveled or dried. It is said that leaving tomatillos to rip further enhances its sweetness, I haven’t tried this though.

Ingredients

Tomatillo – 10 or 12, husked and chopped
Moong dal – ¼ cup
Coconut – 2 tbsp, grated
Green chillies – 4-6
Cumin seeds – 3/4 tsp
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Curry leaves – few
Turmeric powder – ¼ + ¼ tsp
Salt

Method

Cook moong dal with turmeric powder until soft. Grind coconut, green chillies and cumin powder into a fine paste.

In a vessel boil tomatillos in ¼ cup of water with salt and turmeric powder. The tomatillos turn from bright green to greenish yellow as they cook. Mix dal and ground spice mixture to the vegetable and simmer for 5 minutes.

In a seasoning pan, heat oil, splutter mustard seeds and curry leaves and add to the dal. Serve with rice.