Bisi bele bhath is a rice and lentil based dish from Karnataka. It is a healthy wholesome dish prepared with rice, lentils or dal, vegetables, and spices/bisibelebath powder . It tastes great when served with potato chips, papad or boondi.
Heat a tsp of oil, roast the ingredients under Bisi Bela Bath Masala, adding coconut at the end.
Roast everything until it becomes slightly brown in colour and dry grind it. You can prepare this a few days before if you are using kopra as it will not get spoiled. Store it in an airtight container.
Pressure cook rice with 4 ½ cups of water for 4 whistles.
Pressure cook dal with a cup of water and keep aside. Mash it well. I usually soak dal for 15 -20 minutes in hot water as it takes less time for cooking.
Cut pearl onions into 2-3 pieces. Cut beans and carrot lengthwise or into cubes. Peel and chop potatoes into cubes. Cut capsicum into small pieces.
Soak tamarind in a cup of hot water for 15 minutes. Extract its juice and discard the pulp.
Heat a tbsp of oil, add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add fenugreek seeds, hing and curry leaves. Saute for a seconds and add chopped onions.
Sauté onions until it becomes transparent. Then add all the vegetables (except capsicum) and sauté for a few more seconds. Sprinkle water and cook for 4-5 minutes.
Now add tamarind extract, needed salt and the bisi bela bath masala powder. Let it boil well until the raw flavour goes. By the time the vegetables will also get cooked well.
Add cooked dal, cooked rice, 4-5 tsp of ghee and mix well.
Heat a tsp of ghee and sauté capsicum until slightly cooked. It should be crunchy.
Garnish Bisibelabath with capsicums, coriander leaves and serve hot with chips or papads or onion raita or karaboondi or even gobi 65.
As it cools, the bisibelabath will become a little thick. You can add little hot water, a little ghee and re-heat it before serving.
You can cook rice and dal together but certain variety of dal does not get cooked to a mush, so I always cook dal and rice separately.