Tadka Moongdal

Before proceeding to today's recipe, a word regarding the plagiarist who blogs at momrecipes , whom I mentioned about in my previous post. She reminds me of the plagiarist blogger (andhra mirchy if I am correct) who mainly copy pasted others' recipes a couple of years ago. The person closed the blog after the attacks by affected bloggers.
That blogger did not interact with other bloggers where as this woman has the nerve to contribute the copied recipes to events and even conducts the events on her own. After going thru her blog, I noticed that she had copy pasted many old recipes of bloggers who are here in the blogging world for some time now. The people who are visiting would not recognise her content theft. Check to see if any of your posts have been plagiarised.



The yellow colored moongdal is the skinned and split mung bean (outer green husk removed). It is one of the quickest cooking bean and needs no pre soaking or a pressure cooker. Moongdal is also said to be one of the easily digestible beans and therefore people who are stepping into the bean world for the first time can start their journey with this one. Indians who eat beans on a daily basis tend to add the spices like turmeric powder & asafoetida while cooking beans to reduce the flatulence and to aid the digestion.
Basically, this dal is a simple one accentuated by the fragrant tadka of cumin, curry leaves & asafoetida and slightly spiced by the red chillies. The quantity of red chillies I have used works even for the little ones to relish this scrumptious, creamy dal.

Cooking time: Under 30 minutes
Ingredients used to yield 2 cups of cooked dal:
1 cup moongdal
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
5 cups water (approximately)
Salt - 1.5 tsp or as needed
Minced cilantro for garnish
For tadka- 2 tsp canola or peanut oil / ghee, 1 tsp each of mustard seeds & cumin seeds, 6 red chillies broken into small pieces**, a pinch of asafoetida powder, few curry leaves
*A deep sauce pan or a thick bottomed pot are also good substitutes for a kadai, the Indian style wok.
** Green chillies can be substituted and the quantity of chillies can be increased for more spiciness.

The cooking part:
Wash the dal in two exchanges of water. Add the dal to a kadai* along with 3 cups of water & turmeric powder and cook on medium flame. Scoop away with a ladle, the froth formed during the cooking process. Cook the moong till done adding the extra water as needed and stirring in between. Add the salt and stir the dal well. The dal would cook in around 20 minutes, when the moong has almost attained a mushy texture. The final dish would be a little watery with a thicker consistency.
Now the tadka part. Heat oil in a small pan. Add the mustard & cumin seeds. When they start to sizzle, add the asafoetida, red chillies & curry leaves. Heat for a few seconds more and turn off the heat.
Add the tadka ingredients to the dal and mix well. Garnish with cilantro.
Serve with rotis / rice.



This one is going to be a part of
1. Food for 7 stages of life - Kids (4-14 yrs) hosted by Radhika and the event creator is Sudeshna.
2. MLLA - 17 guest hosted by Sra and the event creator is Susan.
3. Think Spice - Turmeric hosted by Sudeshna And the event creator is Sunita.

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