Beans Paruppu usli

Paruppu (in Tamil) means lentils or dhall. Usli is something where we use three kind of lentils i.e., toor dhall, channa dhall and urid dhall. We mix the cooked lentils with green beans. In my mom's place, we usually use this as a side dish for sambar rice and rasam rice. But in my MIL's place, we don't use this as a side dish, instead we use this to mix with rice and the side dish will be more kozhambu. Its basically paruppu usli rice. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Green beans - 1 cup
2. Toor dhall - 1 cup
3. channa dhall - 1/2 cup
4. urad dhall - 1 tbsp
5. Rice - 1 tsp
6. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Oil - 2 tbsp
8. mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
9. curry leaves - few
10. Red chillies -2
11. Green chillies - 1
    
12. Asafoetida powder - apinch
13. Salt to taste

First soak toor dhall, urad dhall, channa dhall, and rice in water for atleast an hour or two. In the mean time, wash the green beans. Cut it into small pieces and cook it. When it is fully cooked, keep it aside. Now grind the soaked dhall and rice mixture adding salt, green chillies and red chillies to it. There are two ways of cooking this recipe

1. Grind the dhall + rice + turmeric powder + chillies + salt in to a fine paste. Steam cook it in a idly pan, for 15 mts. Allow it cool and scramble them. Keep it aside. Take a pan, pre heat oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters add curry leaves and asafoetida powder and fry it till golden brown. Now add the steam cooked dhall to it. Fry it till the dall becomes softer. Now add the cooked green beans to it and mix everything well. Turn off the stove. This is the traditional way of making paruppu usili.
2. Another method is for present days quick cooking. In this method also, we grind all the soaked dhall + rice adding salt, red chillies, green chillies coarsely. Careful while grinding the lentils. We should not mash the lentils. Put it in a microwave safe vessel. Add 3/4 to 1 cup of water, turmeric powder and salt to it and mix everything well. In this step, we can also add a tsp of sesame oil. Microwave it first for 3 mts. Take it out and stir it thoroughly and again microwave it for another 5 mts. By this time the lentils must be cooked. If not, then microwave it for another 3 mts. Now take a pan, pre heat oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters add curry leaves and asafoetida powder and fry it till golden brown. Now add the microwave cooked dhall to it. Fry it till the dall becomes softer. Now add the cooked green beans to it and mix everything well. Turn off the stove.
   

This is a wonderful side dish. In the place of beans, we can also use banana blossom (vazhapoo) and cluster beans (kothavarangai). Try this and lemme know your comments.