After overindulging in all the heavy Diwali food, I’m sure all of you are on the look out for simple healthy recipes. So let’s prepare something on the lighter side. Today I’m going to share with you a recipe to make Beans Paruppu Usili. Paruppu Usili is a typical South Indian dish prepared by steaming spiced up lentils and later on cooking along with vegetables like beans, cluster beans, broad beans, cabbage, broccoli or any other vegetable of your choice. This is a very healthy and low calorie dish.

Lentils in particular are a primary source of protein for mainly vegetarians and form an essential part of our Indian cuisine. Though the main ingredients are french beans and lentils, the recipe is flexible enough to accommodate changes to suit your taste buds. Though there are different methods to cook lentils, I always use the steaming method on a healthy note. Lentils can be one or a combination of different lentils. This is a dry curry/stir fry and is so delicious that it can also be eaten by itself. This one of my favourites with all the goodness of lentils and the veggie.

Generally the ground lentils are either steamed or microwaved to cook it (it can also be fried in oil!!!!!), or simply sauté the paste in some oil and then add the cooked veggie. The last option makes the dish get done quicker and with fewer dishes to clean. Things to keep note is not to add too much water when grinding the lentils and to use NON-STICK pan to avoid sticking of the ground paste. But you know what, the best part in this method are the slightly browned bits you scrape off from the pan. But today we are going to go through the steaming method.

Off to the recipe!!

Let’s learn how make Beans Paruppu Usili :

Here is a quick video for Beans Paruppu Usili….But, continue to read below for tips and detailed recipe!!

Wash and soak lentils/dals together for 30 minutes in hot water.
Drain the water completely and grind it coarsely along with red chillies, garlic, black pepper, cumin seeds, coriander, curry leaves and required salt.

Now steam the coarsely ground dal for 10 minutes or until cooked. You can use a steamer, an idli pan or pressure cooker without putting the weight.
Once cooked remove from the pan and leave it to cool for a few minutes. Then crumble the dal with your hands or in a blender. Now our crumbled dal is ready.
String the beans and chop them finely.
Add a ¼ a teaspoon of salt to the beans, sprinkle a few drops of water and microwave for about 5 to 6 minutes until soft. You can also steam beans. Keep it aside.
Finely chop required onions.

NOTE: Adjust the order of the method to suit your pace. If you are a beginner and very slow, then chop veggies first, then prepare the paruppu usili and finally combine both to make the dish.

Heat oil in a pan over medium heat, add a dry red chilli and mustard seeds, when it splutters, add asafoetida, curry leaves and chopped onions.
Sauté onions till translucent and then add the crumbled lentil mixture and mix well. Cook on medium heat for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Now add the cooked beans (drain and squeeze out the excess water completely and then add) and mix well with the crumbled dal.
Cook covered for another 3-5 minutes. Add grated fresh coconut, mix well and turn off the heat.

Beans Paruppu Usili is ready to be served with hot steamed rice and pepper rasam or vathal kuzhambu or mor kuzhambu. It tastes awesome even with plain hot steamed rice.

A Quick Summary:

Print Recipe

Beans Paruppu Usili | How to make Beans Usili

Beans Paruppu Usili is a South Indian healthy low calorie dish prepared by steaming lentils along with a few spices and then cooking with beans.

Prep Time40

Cook Time15

Total Time55

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Indian

Servings: 3 to 4

Author: Padma

Ingredients

2 Cups French Beans finely chopped
1 Medium Onion finely chopped
For the Paruppu Usili:
1/3 Cup Moong Dal washed and soaked
2 Tablespoons Bengal gram chana dal, washed and soaked
3 to 4 dry Red Chillies
2 Garlic pods
½ teaspoon Whole black pepper
1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
A sprig of curry leaves
Handful of Coriander chopped
For the seasoning:
1 teaspoon Oil
1 Dry Red Chilli
1/2 teaspoon Mustard seeds
A pinch of Asafoetida Hing
Few Curry leaves
Other Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons grated fresh Coconut

Instructions

String the beans and chop it finely. Finely chop onions.
Add a ¼ a teaspoon of salt to the beans, sprinkle a few drops of water and microwave for about 5 to 6 minutes until soft. You can also steam beans. Keep it aside.
For Paruppu Usili:
Wash and soak lentils together for 30 minutes in hot water.
Drain the water completely and grind it coarsely with red chillies, garlic, black pepper, cumin seeds and required salt.
Now steam the coarsely ground dal for 10 minutes or until cooked. You can use a steamer, an idli pan or in the pressure cooker without putting the weight.
Once cooked remove from the pan and leave it to cool for a few minutes. Then crumble the dal with your hands or in a blender. Now our crumbled dal is ready.
How to make Beans Usili?
Heat oil in a pan over medium heat, add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add asafoetida, curry leaves and chopped onions.
Sauté onions till translucent and then add the crumbled lentil mixture and mix well. Cook on medium heat for about 2 to 3 minutes.
Now add the cooked beans (drain and squeeze out the excess water completely and then add) and mix well with the crumbled dal.
Cook covered for another 3-5 minutes and remove from heat.
Beans Paruppu Usili is ready to be served it with hot steamed rice and rasam or vathal kuzhambu. I love having it even with plain hot steamed rice.

My Notes:

Adjust spice with red chillies to suit your taste.
You can also include other lentils of your choice or even prepare with one particular lentil or even increase the quantity of lentils to have more of lentils.
To make it crisp, add a little more oil while frying the mixture.
The total time for the recipe is given including the soaking time, otherwise it’s very quick recipe.
Adding a pinch of cooking soda to beans while microwaving will retain its colour, but this is purely optional.

Check out for other stir fry recipes from the blog-

Happy Cooking 🙂

Cheers!!

Padma.