Bell pepper thogayal

Here is another thogayal I made last week. I buy green, red and bell peppers for my husband's breakfast omlete and for his salad.  After coming back from Chennai, I saw few pieces of these three bell peppers were lying in the fridge (thanks to Nimeesha who kept it in the freezer).  Thought of trying thogayal with the those peppers and it came out pretty good.

Ingredients:-

1. Bell pepper - 1 cup ( chopped - I used all the three color bell peppers)
2. Onion - 1 (medium sized chopped)
3. Tomato - 1
4. Mustard seeds - 1tsp
5. Urad dhall - 1 1/2 tbsp
6. Red chillies - 2 or 3 (acc to taste)
7. Tamarind - couple of small pieces.
8. salt to taste
9. oil - 1/2 tsp

Pre heat a pan with oil, splutter mustard seeds and fry Urad dhall and red chillies to golden brown.  In the same pan, saute onion, tomato and bell pepper for 5 to 6 minutes till the raw smell of peppers go.  Let everything cool and grind it nicely adding required amount of salt.  I did not add coconut while grinding. If you prefer, you can add couple of teaspoons of shredded coconut before grinding. Also tomato can be replaced by adding a tiny ball sized tamarind.  

Cabbage Thogayal

Thanks to Arundati from whom I got inspiration for making this cabbage thogayal.  I made this thogayal along with bottle gourd kootu and tomato rasam. This was a real hit and my husband couldn't find what thogayal it is.  The taste was really awesome and I think I will do this more often from now on. Here goes the recipe..

Ingredients:-

1. Cabbage - 1 cup (chopped)
2. Onion - 1 (medium sized; chopped)
3. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
4. Urad dhall - 2 tbsp
5. Red chillies - 3 (acc to taste)
6. salt to taste
7. Coconut - 1 tsp (grated)
8. Oil - 1 tsp

Pre heat oil in a pan, fry mustard seeds, urad dhall & red chillies to golden brown and keep it aside. In the same pan, saute onion for few minutes and add cabbage and saute for few minutes adding a hand full of water and let both the vegetable cook. When the raw smell goes away, let it cool and grind it along with the mustard and urad dhall, coconut and required amount of water (add water accordingly). It tastes really good with hot rice, roti and idly and I am sure it will go well with bread also....

Vaazhapoo Thogayal

This recipe is something I came across after reading Mangayar Malar magazine. This is something new to me and I have not tried this thogayal before. I make paruppu usli, curry and adai using vaazhapoo but never tried thogayal. So I wanted to try this thogayal this time and it came out pretty well. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Vaazhapoo florets - a handfull
   
2. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
   
3. Urad dhall - 2 tbsp
   
4. Red chillies - 4 ( acc to taste)
   
5. Salt to taste
   
6. Coconut - 1 tsp (acc to taste)
   
7. Tamarind - a tiny ball sized or 1 tbsp paste
   
8. Oil - 1 tsp
   

Remove kallan from vaazhapoo. Then, pre heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dhall and red chillies and fry it till it becomes golden brown. Do not over fry or burn urad dhall. Keep it aside. In the same pan, fry coconut to golden brown and keep it aside. Now fry the vaazhapoo florets for few mts and let everything cool for few minutes. Now add required amount of salt to the above ingredients along with tamarind and grind it into a fine paste. This goes really well with hot white rice with a teaspoon of sesame oil and also with chapathi, idly and dosa.

Paruppu Thogayal 2

This is my mom's favorite thogayal. This is the simple recipe for making this thogayal. After 6 years of her death, I made this thogayal yesterday with drumstick molagootal and had it for lunch.

Ingredients:-

1. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
2. Channa dhall - 1 1/2 tbsp
3. Red chillies - 3 (acc to taste)
4. Salt to taste
5. Grated coconut - 2 1/2 tbsp

Fry mustard seeds, channa dhall, red chillies to golden brown. Add coconut to it and saute' for a moment. Let it cool. Grind it into a fine paste adding required amount of salt to it. Enjoy this as a side dish for molagootal rice or vathakozhambu rice.

Ridge Gourd (Skin) Thogayal

Last week was a long week for me. I had to do the preparations for my girls' 4th birthday party on saturday. I had 0% strength to cook on sunday morning. Since my father-in-law is with us now, I had no choice other than to cook. I had ridge gourd in my fridge. So thought of doing ridge gourd kootu and thogayal with ridge gourd skin. So here is the recipe for thogayal.

Ingredients:-

1. Ridge Gourd skin - 1 cup (chop it)
   
2. Onion - 1/2 (chopped)
3. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
4. Channa dhall - 1 tsp
5. Coconut - 1 tbsp
6. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
7. Red chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
8. Tamarind - a small piece
   
9. Salt to taste
10. Oil - a drop
    

Take a small pan, pre heat a drop of oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters add channa dhall , asafoetida, coconut and red chillies and fry it till golden brown. Keep it aside. Now in the same pan, put the chopped onion, ridge gourd and saute for 5 mts. Let it become tender. Now put it on top of the fried lentils. Let everything cool. when it is ready for grinding, add required amount of salt and the tamarind piece and grind it into a fine paste or grind it coarsely (depending upon your taste). Now ridge gourd thogayal is ready to eat. Mix one tbsp of thogayal with rice add 1 tbsp sesame oil and mix with well and enjoy. Ridge gourd kootu can be a wonderful side dish for this thogayal rice.

Karuvepilai thogayal

This is how my patti make this thogayal. Whenever she makes molagootal, this thogayal will be the side dish (for sure). The main ingredients are as follows:

Ingredients:-

1. Curry leaves(karuvepillai) - 3 strings
2. Tamarind - a small piece
3. oil - 1 tsp
4. mustard seeds - 1 tsp
   
5. urid dal - 2 tsp
6. red chillies - 2 or 3 (acc to taste)
7. Jaggery - 1 tsp
8. salt to taste
9. fresh coconut - 2 tbsp

Method is really simple. Take a pan, pre heat the oil add mustard seeds, when it splutters add urid dal, red chillies and curry leaves and fry it till golden brown. Turn off the stove and add the coconut to it. Stir it for a mintue. Do not burn the ingredients. Let it cool and grind the ingredients adding tamarind, salt and jaggery to it. The consistency should be thick and not watery like chutey.

Mint Thogayal

This is another kind of thogayal which is good for stomach ache and chest. Most of us don't like the smell of mint. So we can add coriander leaves with mint leaves. The main ingredients are as follows:
Ingredients:-

1. Mint Leaves - 1 bunch
2. Coriander leaves - 1/2 bunch
3. Tomato - 1 (cut it into cubes)
   
4. Onion - 1/2 (cut it)
   
5. Channa dal - 2 tsp
6. Urid dal - 1 1/2 tsp
7. Red chillies - 2 or 3
8. Coconut - 2 tsp
9. Asafoetida - a pinch
10. Oil - 1 tsp
11. Mustard seeds
    

First wash the mint leaves and coriander leaves. Cut those leaves and keep it aside. Now take a small pan, preheat the oil and fry mustard seeds, channa dal, urid dal, red chillies, coconut, asafoetida, into golden brown. Take out the ingredients from the pan and let it cool. Now in the same pan fry the mint leaves and coriander leaves till the leaves shrink and the water evaporates and let the leaves cool. Now grind everything nicely adding a little bit of water(if necessary) and salt to it. If we want we can add a little bit of tamarind to the ingredients before grinding.

Paruppu Thogayal

This is a simple receipe and also a side dish for Idly, Dosai etc. We can also make Thogayal rice (thogayal saadam) with this. The main ingredients are as follow:

Ingredients:-

1. Toor dal - 3 tbsp
2. Channa dal - 2 tbsp
3. Urid dal - 1 tbsp
4. Fresh coconut - 1 tbsp
5. Black pepper - 2 tsp
6. salt to taste
7. Red chillies - 1 (optional, if we increase the quantity of pepper)
8. Asafoetida
9. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
10. Oil - 1 tsp

Take a pan, pre heat the oil and fry all the above said ingredients (except salt) one by one, to golden brown. Do not burn the ingredients. Let it cool and grind the ingredients adding a little bit of water and salt to it. The consistency should be thick. We can mix this with rice and don't forget to add a teaspoon of sesame oil while mixing this thogayal with rice.

Any vegetable kootu can be a good side dish for this rice. Kootu should not be watery. It should be in a semi-solid consistency. Also any curd pachadi can be a good dish dish.