Holiday season is right here in U.A.E and I cannot think of any better time to get all those cozy food smells going right in my kitchen. When kids are around to lovingly feed their hungry selves at lunch time, then we mothers feel extra excited to cook their favorite food. Which is what going on right now in my small kitchen. Also I have a big jar of peas that I bought for something a month ago and apparently never got around to using. It’s the perfect time to empty up the extra groceries as we all head up to India for vacation soon. (YES, exciting and ever longing trip time has come again!!).
Chapati or Poori with this peas kurma can truly, legitimately be my every day food either as breakfast or lunch or dinner or whatever. The plain, simple Indian flat bread chapati can make sense as food with some awesome side dish like this. The peas dunk in rich, deep colored gravy just shines as a side dish and I loved pairing it up with poori too.
Peas kurma has flavors of whole spices like cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf which are sauteed in some oil and then fine cubes of onion plus tomato gets nicely mashed up as it cooks. When pre-cooked peas get added along with spice powders, it’s like flavors wafting out to give you warm feelings of being appetite. Finally coconut ground with fennel seeds is incorporated to make kurma little thick and sauce like consistency. You can follow your creative mind here like you can replace fresh coconut by soaked cashews too. Cashews obviously give rich taste and thickness to the gravy.
There is nothing wonderful than the flavor, color and the texture of peas kurma which satisfies all your food loving senses to the core.
Peas Kurma Recipe | Chapati, Poori Side Dish
Ingredients
- Dry peas- 1/2 cup
- Onion- 1 no.
- Tomato- 1 no.
- Fresh grated coconut- 1/4 cup
- Green chillies- 2 no.
- Fennel seeds- 1 tsp
- Coriander powder- 1 tsp
- Salt- 1 tsp
- Red chilly powder- 1 tsp
- Chopped ginger- 1 tsp
Seasoning ingredients
- Cooking oil- 2 tsp
- Bay leaf- 1 no.
- Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
- Cinnamon stick- 1" length
- Cloves- 2 nos.
Instructions
Preparation
- Soak peas in enough water for about 8 hours or overnight. Next day peas would have doubled up in volume to 1 cup.
Method
- Chop the tomatoes in to fine cubes, peel off the onion and chop that too in to cubes. Slit the green chillies. Pressure cook soaked peas for 3 whistles and in simmer for 5 minutes.
- Heat a pan adding all the seasoning ingredients one after the other. Let the cumins crackle, then add chopped onion and saute till translucent. Next add chopped ginger and green chillies.
- Include tomatoes now and mix well. Let the tomatoes cook till mushy. Next throw in red chilly powder, salt and coriander powder. Combine everything well. Next add cooked peas along with it's water.
- Meanwhile take coconut, fennel seeds and water in a mixer and whir to make fine puree.
- Pour this puree to the pan. Adjust consistency by adding water and cook for few more minutes and switch off.
- Amazing chapati side dish peas kurma is ready.
Notes
- If you are using fresh peas, then pre-cooking is not necessary. You can add it after tomatoes and cook.
- You can skip coconut and use cashews instead for rich taste of kurma.
- Adjust spice as per your taste.
