Pappula Podi ~ Dalia Powder

If suddenly somebody asks me what do I do with Pappulu (dalia, Bhuna chana, roasted chickpeas), I would say chutney (to go with breakfast dishes) even without thinking. The other things start pouring in after giving a thought. If you ask my kids, they will say, pop some in your mouth. If you ask my husband, he would say pappula podi - spicy powder prepared with it.

This roasted chickpeas / dalia powder is called pappula podi in Telugu. It has a funny name in our family, the gun powder (how ridiculous it may seem). This is one powder which my mom not prepares but a staple powder in my husband's family. This is very simple to prepare among all the spicy powders. Just pop the ingredients into the mixer / blender and grind. No frying involved. I know now how versatile this powder can be and here are some examples of it's multi tasking ability. 1. You can eat it with rice and ghee. When eating rice with pickles like avakaya, gongura etc just mix a tsp of powder into it. 2. Eat it with upma, the thing I learnt from my husband. 3. Use in making curries like capsicum , eggplants etc 4. Turn this into chutney instantly, just by adding water. This tip was from my SIL, who does it to serve with dosas / idlis when there are those power failures in India. 5. To make masala dosa / erra karam (spicy, chillie paste smeared) dosa.

6. To thicken gojjus. The recipe is my MIL's. For my coconut allergic husband, she omits the coconut part and adds garlic. You can add garlic for this recipe too. Ingredients: Roasted chickpeas / Pappulu - 1 cup Dry coconut grated - 1/4 cup Red chillies - 6-8 Salt - Accordingly Grind all the ingredients into a fine powder and store it in a dry bottle.

Post a comment