VeggieBytes

Chef Veggie's blog

Bisi Bele Bhath

Entree

Bisi Bele Bhath

Vegan MoFo 2014

I love South Indian food!  The coconut, spices, rice, dal, tropical veggies, and tamarind make for magnificent combinations.
I started making my own sambar powder 10 years ago and I like that I can customize the spices, amount of chilies, and know the freshness of the powder.
My curry leaf plant has to survive the winter and I’m growing a drumstick tree (Moringa) in hopes that I will have my homegrown drumstick in sambar some day.

Bisi Bhele Bhath is a yummy all-in-one dish that comes from Karnataka. It is rice and lentils cooked together and is much like a South Indian kichidi, but with a sambar-like flavor. I’m an advocate of using a pressure cooker. If you are vegan and cook lots of beans and grains at home, you HAVE to get one.  I have 4. *wink*

I’ve seen lots of people like to use the red or masoor lentils in Indian dishes to save time, but they just aren’t the same texture.  Go to an Indian store and buy these dals: split mung (peeled), split urad dal (peeled), split chana dal, and toor dal (non-oily). You’ll have the 4 most common dals!  Gandhi Bazar here in Austin even carries organic dals by 24 Mantra from India.
There are a couple steps in making the dish, but I believe it’s part of the fun.
I love to mix up spice blends and also make the chaunk (Hindi for tempering of the spices).
You know you make a lot of Indian food if you find random mustard seeds that have popped from your chaunk.

 

Bisi Bele Bhath

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Bisi Bele Bhath

Ingredients

  • Spice Paste
  • 1 TBSP coconut oil
  • 1 TBSP chana dal
  • 1 TBSP urad dal
  • 5 Indian red chilies
  • 2 TBSP coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
  • 2 cloves
  • 1 in cinnamon stick
  • 1/4 cup coconut flakes, dry
  • Dal/Rice/Veggies
  • 1 TBSP coconut oil
  • 3 cups chopped vegetables (potatoes, red bell peppers, green beans, drumsticks!!!, carrots, winter squash)
  • 1 roma tomato, chopped
  • 1 cup basmati rice (soaked in water for 15 minutes, drain)
  • 3/4 cup toor dal (soaked for in water for 15 minutes, drain)
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 TBSP tamarind concentrate (find one with sugar or preservatives)
  • 1/2 TBSP or salt to taste
  • Tempering
  • 1 TBSP coconut oil
  • 1 tsp black mustard seeds
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 red chili
  • Curry Leaves (1 sprig – 6-8 leaves)
  • Cilantro for garnishing

Instructions

Making the Paste

  1. Take a small pan and heat the oil on medium and slowly cook the dal until it has changed several shades darker. Add the remaining items and cook until all are well toasted.
  2. Set aside to cool and then grind in a blender or better, a coffee grinder used just for spices.

Dal & Rice & Veggies

  1. In a large pressure cooker pot, heat the oil and add the vegetables, and soaked dal and lentils. Add the turmeric, tamarind paste and 1/2 the spice paste.
  2. Add 5 cups of water.
  3. Lock on your pressure cooker lid, cook at high pressure for 12 minutes.
  4. Turn off the heat and let cook under pressure 10 more minutes, then release pressure. (I use a Fagor pressure cooker, so i am not familiar with whistles 🙂
  5. Mix the in the remaining spice paste.

Tempering

  1. In a small pan, add the oil and temper the spices until the mustard seeds pop.
  2. Add chaunk to the dal/rice/veggie mixture.
  3. Also add salt to taste.
  4. Mix thoroughly and garnish with cilantro leaves

The coconut okra recipe I made a couple weeks ago would be a great complement.

See you on Friday for my last fermentation post during Vegan MoFo.  I’m going to keep with that theme for Fridays but it won’t be officially Vegan MoFo anymore!

 

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