Vendhaya Keerai Paruppu Usili, Fenugreek Leaves (Methi) With Lentils

          Paruppu Usili is one of my favorite side dishes, especially with moru kuzhambu, we can make it with many vegetables, the common ones being green beans and cluster beans ( kothavarangai ). I have tried it with other vegetables too, but this is the first time I made it with methi/fresh fenugreek leaves. Since fenugreek leaves have a bitter taste, I also added some green peas and jaggery in the usili and it turned out really good and tasted perfect with rice and Moru Kuzhambu..

Need To Have

• Chopped Methi/Fenugreek Leaves - 2 cups, packed
• Fresh Or Frozen Green Peas - 1/2 cup
• Grated Coconut - 2 tablespoons
• Tuvar Dal/Split Pigeon Peas - 1/3 cup
• Dried Red Chillies - 4 
• Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
• Jaggery - 1 tablespoon
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Urad Dal/Husked Black Gram - 2 teaspoons
• Salt to taste

Method

          Soak the tuvar dal for an hour and then grind it along with red chillies, asafoetida and jaggery.

          Then steam this mixture, I used the microwave safe egg poacher to do this, you can use the idli maker or any other plate and steam it on stove top. Cool the steamed dal mixture, then break them into small pieces.

          Then add small quantities to a blender and pulse it a couple of times to get the coarse usili texture.

          In the meantime, heat a little oil, add the fenugreek leaves and green peas and salt, cover and cook on low heat till the leaves are cooked. Then remove the lid and saute the mixture till dry, remove and keep.

          To the same pan, add some more oil, add the urad dal and the mustard seeds, when the seeds start sputtering, add the dal mixture, salt and mix for 2 minutes.

          Then add the cooked greens and peas and mix verything for about 3 minutes. Finally add the coconut, mix and remove.

Check out the other usilis in the blog..

Green Beans Paruppu Usili
Long Beans Masala Usili
Vazhaipoo (Banana Flower) Paruppu Usili

Note
There is another way of cooking the ground dal mixture, you add it to the oil after doing the seasoning and then keep stirring till it becomes dry and gets the crumbly texture. This method is not only time consuming but needs a lot more oil, so I prefer the steaming method.
The jaggery, green peas and coconut balance out the bitterness from the fenugreek leaves.