Thotakura Podi Koora | Paruppu Keerai Poriyal Recipe | Amaranth Curry | Thotakura Kandi Pappu Podi Kura | Keerai Curry

Including greens in daily food diet is really good for health. Thotakura/Amaranth is one of my favourite greens as it is versatile and can be used in various preparations like Amaranth stir-fry, Dal, Pakoda and also Parathas. Thotakura Podi Koora (Paruppu Keerai Poriyal Recipe or Amaranth Curry) is a very simple dry curry using lentils. Every bite into toor dal along with the greens, the crunch and flavours from coconut makes this curry absolutely delicious. It pairs well with rice as well as roti or paratha.

Legumes/Lentils are major vegetarian protein source. This is why we try to incorporate them in some way or the other  in every course of a vegetarian Indian meal. This particular recipe for Thotakura Podi Koora incorporates leafy vegetable with Toor dal (Kandipappu/ thoram paruppu). In this recipe cooking toor dal to perfection is a very important step. If you cook it too soft it becomes mushy and becomes like Dal. You will not get the right texture to the curry. Obviously you shouldn’t  under cook the dal. Just keep this in mind and you are good to go!!

Off to the recipe for Thotakura Podi Koora!!

Step-by-step process for Thotakura Podi Koora:

• Clean, wash and cut thotakura (amaranth greens / thandu keerai/ keerai) into small pieces and set aside. Remove root parts (if any) and fibre from the thick stalks. 
• Finely chop onion, slit green chillies and peel garlic.
• These are all what you need!!

Cooking Toor Dal:

• Wash the Toor dal and soak it in warm water  for at least 20 minutes. This will soften the dal and the dal cooks fast.
• Cook toor dal till it gets transparent and still holds the shape. It should not be broken or mushy. If the dal is not done you will see that the centre of the dal is darker.
• You can cook dal on stove top in a sauce pan or pressure cook for just one whistle.
• Take the cooked dal in a colander, drain the water and leave dal aside. Save this water to make Rasam out of it.

Making Thotakura Podi Koora:

• Heat oil in a deep pan over medium heat. Add broken red chilies, mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
• Once mustard seeds pop up, add chopped onions, slit green chillies, peeled garlic and curry leaves.
• Sauté  till the onions turn translucent.

• Now add only the chopped stem part of the greens.
• To this add required salt, turmeric powder and mix well.
• Close with a lid and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

• Now add in the chopped leaves part of the amaranth greens.
• Do not add water as it leaves water while it gets cooked.
• Close with a lid and cook on medium high heat for for 5 to 6 minutes. The volume of the leaves added shrinks during this time.
• Open the lid and stir till all the water evaporates. 
• Simmer and cook till the stems become tender and water evaporates completely.

• Finally add the cooked dal, sprinkle some grated coconut and mix well.
• Adjust salt if needed and turn off the heat.

• Serve with hot rice or as a side to sambar, rasam, pappu charu or as a side to rotis.

Quick Summary:

Print Recipe

Thotakura Podi Koora | Paruppu Keerai Poriyal Recipe | Amaranth Curry

Thotakura Podi Koora is a healthy, quick and simple preparation of amaranth greens with garlic, toor dal and coconut.

Prep Time25 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Indian (South Indian)

Servings: 3 to 4

Author: Padma Veeranki

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon oil
• 3 to 4 dry red chilies
• ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
• 1 Onion finely chopped
• 2 green chillies slit lengthwise
• 8 to 10 garlic flakes peeled
• A sprig of Curry leaves
• 3 cups of fresh amaranth greens with tender stems wash, remove fibre from stems & finely chop (Thotakura or Thandu keerai)
• ¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 Cup Toor dal cooked
• ¼ cup grated fresh Coconut

Instructions

• Heat oil in a deep pan over medium heat. Add broken red chilies, mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
• Once mustard seeds pop up, add chopped onions, slit green chillies, peeled garlic and curry leaves.
• Sauté till the onions turn translucent.
• Now add only the chopped stem part of the amaranth greens, salt, turmeric powder and mix well.
• Close with a lid and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
• Now add chopped leaves part of the amaranth greens.
• Close with a lid and cook on medium high heat for for 5 to 6 minutes.
• Open the lid and stir fry till all the water evaporates.
• Now add the cooked dal, sprinkle some grated coconut and mix well. Turn off the heat.
• Serve with hot rice or as a side to sambar or rasam.

My Notes:

1. I have used amaranth greens to make this thotakura podi koora, but you can replace it with any Greens of your choice….it tastes great with drumstick leaves.
2. Adjust spice levels to suit your taste.
3. Quantity of dal can be increased or decreased to suit your taste.
4. Soaking dal in warm water (optional) speeds up the cooking process.
5. You may skip garlic in case you do not like it.

You might want to check out KEERAI  PORIYAL, VEGETABLE DRY CURRIES  and RECIPES USING LENTILS from blog.

Many more to come!!…..STAY TUNED!!

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Happy Cooking 🙂

Cheers!!

Padma.