Keerai molagootal is a traditional palakkad special dish South Indian rice accompaniment/ side dish prepared with spinach and dal. Freshly ground spice-paste gives a nice flavor to the keerai kootu. Quick one-pot spinach dal curry which can be prepared with Instant pot/ Pressure cooker. Keerai kootu and Keerai thengai curry are the dishes my Amma makes with spinach. Growing up I was not a big fan of spinach but because of its healthy benefits she somehow managed to make eat it. Coconut flavor in spinach dishes made me like this iron rich vegetable. Keerai pappu become my favorite in recent years. Amma makes a thick kootu and we take it as a side dish for Rasam/ Milagu Kuzhambu/ Vethakuzhambu. Now a days I started making it in a gravy-like consistency and we mix it with rice use it as a rice accompaniment. Keerai Molagootal is prepared with channa dal/ moong dal with some vegetable or combination of veggies. Freshly roasted and ground paste makes kootu super delicious. Usually I use green chilli for kootu like Cabbage kootu and Pumpkin kootu, and red chilli for Poricha kootu and Keerai Milagu kootu.
When it comes to keerai Molagootal both Amma and MIL use moong dal for the preparation. Sometime back we had South Indian thali in Indian restaurant, and keerai kootu was one among the dishes served. They added little channa dal to the kootu and liked that variation so now a days little channa dal always goes to my keerai kootu. Spinach kootu can be prepared in pressure cooker and instant pot. Coconut gives nice flavor for the kootu. Friend of mine once told Kerala dish, keerai molagtal is also prepared in a similar way. In Keerai Molagootal, Urad dal is used, like in poricha kootu. Roasted Coriander seeds give aromatic flavor to the kootu. This is tamil brahmin style, no onion - no garlic version kootu. If you are looking for quick one pot recipes, this one is perfect. Except the dry roasting part, kootu is pretty much easy. Put everything into pressure cooker/ instant pot stir once and cook, kootu is ready Kootu recipe collection in TMF
Spinach - 100 grams Moong dal - 1/3 cup Channa dal - 2 tbsp Salt - as needed Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp Water - 1 cup + 3/4 cup To grind: Grated coconut (fresh/frozen) - 1/4 cup Urad dal - 1/2 tbsp Cumin seed - 1/2 tsp Pepper - 1/4 tsp Red chilli - 2 To temper: Coconut oil - 1/2 tbsp Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp Urad dal - 1 tsp Red chilli - 1 Curry leaves - few Asafotida - generous pinch Method:
Dry roast the ingredients gives under “to grind” except coconut into golden brown. Add coconut give a quick stir. Switch off and let it cool down. Grind into a paste with litter water Switch on the instant pot in sauté mode and add oil and when the oil is hot add the ingredients under “to temper” let it splutter Add spinach, moong dal, Channa dal and mix well
Add the ground paste, turmeric powder, asafotida, water; mix well Switch the instant pot to manual mode, cook on high temperature for 21 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally. Add salt; mix well
