Paruppu keerai sambar, a no tamarind sambar recipe with fresh green leaves and tuvar dal. A delicious combination with steaming hot rice and ghee.
Paruppu keerai known as purslane leaves in english. It is a weed and you can see it growing almost in any place. These leaves can be added to salads and consumed raw
I personally love purslane leaves and cook it almost twice or thrice in a month. This purslane leaves kootu is my favorite. A simple recipe in pressure cooker that gets ready in minutes. This paruppu keerai sambar, is yet another simple and easy recipe to enjoy this nutritious and abundantly available green.
Apart from fresh purslane leaves, we have some Indian shops, where we get all greens, like Chennai. Even as i type this post, i have 4-5 varieties of spinach, ready to cook in my freezer.
How to store/freeze fresh spinach
- Cut the roots and remove any hard stem. Check the spinach for any wilt, weed etc. Remove them.
- Some greens can be chopped with stem, for some we need to remove the leaves separately. But as a general rule, if the stem is tender, i include them.
- Chop the spinach with the stem, dunk them into a bowl of water, fully covered. Let it sit undisturbed for 10 minutes for the dirt to settle down at the bottom.
- Strain the chopped spinach, wash once again. Let the cleaned spinach sit in a colander and drain completely.
- Divide the spinach according to portions you will need for one time, store them in ziploc pouches and freeze.
How i made this paruppu keerai sambar
To make paruppu keerai sambar, we need soft cooked tuvar dal. Wash and soak tuvar dal for 15 minutes. Drain and pressure cook it with a pinch of turmeric until soft, usually 4-5 whistles. This recipe uses no tamarind, instead tomatoes are used as an souring agent.
Chop and wash fresh purslane leaves and keep them ready. In a wide pan, heat oil splutter mustard seeds, methi seeds , curry leaves and hing. Add tomatoes, sambar powder and salt and cook until tomatoes are soft. Next dump the chopped spinach to this, with some water, cover and cook until the spinach is done.
Add the soft cooked tuvar dal to this and let it sit on the stove for another 10-15 minutes. check the consistency of the sambar and take it off the stove. Serve it hot with rice.
Paruppu Keerai Sambar|Keerai sambar Recipe(No Tamarind)
Equipment
- Pressure cooker for cooking tuvar dal
- Sauce pan for cooking sambar
Ingredients
- 2 nos medium bunches of paruppu keerai/purslane leaves approximately 3 cups when chopped
- ½ cup tuvar dal/toor dal/split pigeon peas
- 2 nos medium-sized tomatoes chopped or 3 tablespoon tomato puree
- 2 teaspoon sambar powder homemade/storebought
- 2 teaspoon fresh coconut
- ¾ teaspoon salt or to taste
Tempering
- 1 teaspoon oil any vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds/kadugu
- ¼ teaspoon methi seeds /fenugreek seeds
- 2 nos red chilies i used round variety, crushed
- ¼ teaspoon hing/asafoetida
- a sprig of curry leaf
Instructions
- Wash and soak tuvar dal for 15 minutes. Drain, add fresh water and pressure cook it with little turmeric for 3 whistles or until soft.
- Wash, Clean and Chop Paruppu Keerai/Purslane Leaves.
- Heat oil given under "Tempering" in a kadai/thick bottomed pan. Splutter mustard seeds, add hing, curry leaves, methi/fenugreek seeds, crushed red chilies and saute for a minute.
- Add chopped tomatoes or tomato puree, add ½ cup of Water. Add sambhar powder and cook until tomatoes are soft and oil separates.
- Add chopped paruppu keerai/purslane leaves and another ½ cup of water. Add salt and coconut, mix well.
- Let this cook for 10 minutes. By this time, the spinach will be almost cooked, add the soft cooked tuvar dal to this and let it cook for another 10-15 minutes.
- After the said time, the sambar would have reached a thick consistency, if not let it sit for another 5 minutes.
- When thick gravy consistency is reached, switch off the flame. Serve hot with rice or roti's too, i prefer this delicious gravy with both.
Disclaimer
I m not a Doctor or a Nutritionist The Nutrition information provided above comes from the plugin and is only an estimate.
Serve this delicious paruppu keerai sambar with steaming hot rice and ghee for a comforting meal. This keerai sambar also pairs well with soft roti.
More Spinach recipes
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An old post from 2012, updated with new content for better engagement
Priya Suresh
Fingerlicking,super comforting sambhar.
Sangeetha Nambi
Perfect Keerai Sambar...
http://recipe-excavator.blogspot.com
Shobha
This is divine... I am a great sambar fan..never get tired of it..
virunthu unna vaanga
nice dish...
VIRUNTHU UNNA VAANGA
Unknown
I never knew that these leaves are edible. Delicious sambar.
Jeyashris Kitchen
this sounds very yum
Spice up the Curry
thats very tempting... love it
kitchen queen
awesome and mouth watering sambar.
Nalini's Kitchen
Nice and healthy sambhar,love to have it with rice..thanks for linking to the event...
Simona Carini
What a nice dish with purslane. You are so right: humble but healthy and also tasty. Thank you so much for contributing to My Legume Love Affair.