Mixed Vegetable Kootu-South Indian Vegetable Kootu-Kadamba Kootu-Side dish for Pongal

This is a very healthy and tasty kootu prepared with mixed vegetables. It is also called kadamba kootu or pongal kootu as it is prepared during Pongal festival without onion and tomatoes. You do not have to prepare any vegetable curry or sambar when preparing this kootu, just a simple thuvaiyal is enough. You can add vegetables like carrot, potato, brinjal, snake gourd, beans, cluster beans, broad beans, pumpkin, ash gourd, cauliflower and also any legumes like black eyed peas or green peas or channa or peanuts. This kootu is packed with protein, vitamins and minerals and is so easy to make. It can be had as a side dish for ven pongal also. Today we will learn how to make Mixed Vegetable Kootu South Indian style following this easy recipe.

Mixed Vegetable Kootu-South Indian style

South Indian Mixed Vegetable Kootu

Prep Time: 15 mins | Cook Time: 20 Mins | Serves: 5-6

Ingredients needed

   Mixed Vegetables-5 cups
   Tur dal -1/4 cup
   Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
   Black eyed peas (any legumes)- 2 tbsp
   Tamarind- small gooseberry sized ball
   Salt needed
   Onion -1
   Tomato-1 big
Oil -3 tsp

For grinding

   Coriander seeds-1 tbsp
Bengal gram dal/channa dal -2 tsp
   Cumin seeds -1/2 tsp
   Red Chillies-5
   Fenugreek seeds-1/4 tsp
Grated coconut-1/4 cup

For the seasoning

Oil-1 tsp
Mustard seeds -1 tsp
Urad dal-1 tsp
Hing- a pinch
Curry leaves -few

Preparation

Heat a tsp of oil, saute coriander seeds, bengal gram (kadalai paruppu), cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds and red chillies. When dal turns golden brown, switch off the heat. Add grated coconut and saute in the heat of the pan itself. After it cools, grind it to a smooth paste and keep it aside.

Heat 2 tsp of oil and saute onions, when onion turns transparent, add tomatoes and cook until tomatoes become mushy. Keep it aside.

Cut all the vegetables into slightly big pieces and keep it ready.

Wash and soak black eyed peas overnight and cook along with dal. If using fresh ones, soaking is not necessary and you can cook directly along with the vegetables.

Soak dal for 15 minutes in hot water and pressure cook along with black eyed peas (karamani) for 3 whistles. Keep black eyed peas in a small vessel/cup and cook along with dal. Mash dal well.

Soak tamarind in 1 cup of hot water for 15 minutes. Extract its juice and discard the pulp.

Every thing is kept ready– 1. Ground paste, 2. Chopped vegetables, 3.Cooked onion tomato mix (this is optional, you can omit this when preparing for festivals) 4. Cooked dal + legumes, 5.Tamarind water.

Method

Take a pressure pan/cooker, add all the vegetables, 1/2 cup of water, turmeric powder, salt needed and pressure cook for 1-2 whistles. You can also cook in a pan but will take a longer time.

When the pressure subsides, open the cooker, add tamarind water, cooked black eyed peas and cook for 10 minutes or until the raw flavor of the tamarind goes.

Then add the ground paste, cooked dal, cooked onion-tomato mix and cook on low flame for 15 minutes until everything gets blended well.

Heat a tsp of oil, add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add urad dal, hing, curry leaves and pour it over the kootu.

This kootu along with thogayal, appalam/vadam and rice makes a filling meal.

Check out more Kootu Varieties

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Comments

nandoos Kitchen

March 28, 2014 at 12:31 pm

super healthy kootu. Delicious

Priya Suresh

March 28, 2014 at 6:23 pm

Very colourful and delicious healthy kootu..

Farin Ahmed

March 29, 2014 at 12:19 am

healthy kootu is ready

chitra

April 1, 2014 at 10:17 am

healthy one

Mayuri

May 7, 2014 at 2:10 pm

I prepared this…and just awesome. I follow your recipes and I must say they are so easy and ingredients that you use are all the ones that are being used on a daily basis. After reading ur blogs i dont have to step out to buy any. Thank you for creating this blog and updating them regularly

Bhuvana

December 1, 2015 at 3:34 pm

nice, will try out!

Geetha

January 14, 2016 at 7:25 am

When in description,it is mentioned as without onion tomsto, why those are incuded in ingredients. Espcially when we make this kootu for the festival of Sankaranthi

- Padhu Sankar
  
  January 14, 2016 at 11:43 am
  
  In description it is mentioned as "it is prepared during Pongal festival without onion and tomatoes" so when preparing during pongal festival, you can skip onion. At other times, you can add onion. You can prepare this very healthy dish even on normal days and have it with rice.
  
Unknown

March 2, 2017 at 9:24 am

Hi Ms. Padhu! I would so love to make this but I can't eat coconut. There seems to be a lot of coconut in this. Will it be ok if I removed the coconut? Any suggestions?
Thanks so much, Faye

- Padhu Sankar
  
  March 6, 2017 at 7:18 am
  
  Coconut give a nice flavor to the kootu. Since you cannot eat coconut, you skip that and add a tsp of rice flour when grinding the masala.
  
- Unknown
  
  March 7, 2017 at 9:22 am
  
  Thanks so much for the reply. I really appreciate it. It is a sore point about the missed flavor for sure.
  
Swaminathan Shivakumar

March 7, 2018 at 3:36 am

Prepared it around 30 minutes ago; I avoided onion and tomato; came out quite well. Congrats and thanks.

Prof Swaminathan Shivakumar

Unknown

January 18, 2019 at 12:30 am

if using the tomato /onion mix, when is this added? thank you!

- Padhu Sankar
  
  January 20, 2019 at 2:18 am
  
  Add after adding the ground paste and dal.
  
Rajesh harnathka

January 4, 2022 at 9:14 am

Amazing recipe…
Out of the world kootu, filled with nutrition and health. You are the best Padhu…. I am a North indian but I follow only your recipes whenever I make any South Indian dishes. They are awesome.