This is a protein packed green beans curry that has ground steamed lentils mixed with it. It is one of my favorite dishes that Amma would make to go along with mor kozhumbu and rice.
I don't usually make it on weeknights since it involves soaking, grinding and steaming. But I have found ways to make it quicker and using less dishes. All in one Instant Pot (IP)!
You will need:
Lentil mix:
1/2 cup toor dal
1/2 cup chana dal
1-2 red chillies
water for soaking
Tempering:
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1-2 red chillies
1/4 tsp hing/asafoetida
3-4 curry leaves
Veggies:
2 cups green beans finely chopped
You can use other veggies like carrot, cabbage, other varieties of green beans.
Seasonings:
salt per taste
Method:
Start by soaking the lentil mix ingredients in water for 1 hour. Then drain out all the water. Add this mix to a grinding vessel, I use my Ninja. Add salt to taste. Grind to a somewhat fine paste. Since you don't add water for grinding it would be a bit coarse and that is OK!
Make lentil paste into balls and place them on a steamer rack.
NOTE:
You could make some smaller balls and steam them and use these to add to mor kozhumbu too! Instead of veggies!
Add 1 cup of water to the IP base and bring it to a boil in saute mode. Place a trivet in the IP base. The steamer rack with the lentil balls go on top of that. Close the IP lid. Set the valve in "venting" position. Set the IP in "steaming mode" for 15 minutes in high pressure.
You can test the lentil balls if they are steamed or not by inserting a knife in them and it should come out clean.
Let these lentil balls cool down. Once they are cool, then crumble them up.
Take out the trivet from IP base and drain all the water from it. Heat oil in IP in saute mode. Add the tempering ingredients and let them splatter. Add the beans and salt to taste (you also added salt to lentil mix, so be mindful of that). Sprinkle some water. Close the lid of IP. Set the valve in sealed position. Cook at manual high pressure for 1 minute. Do a manual quick release.
Saute this cooked beans for 1 minute or so basically to get rid of any water. Now add the lentil crumble to this and saute for a bit.
Serve it as a side for mor kozhumbu and rice.
ENJOY!
