Chettinad Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu | Kulambu Recipe

Vegan Chettinad Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu Recipe

Lemtil dumplings in a spiced broth, from Chettinad. 100% Healthy, 100% Delicious.

Whole Food Plant Based Chettinad Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu Recipe

Course: Side Dish for Course 3 (Grain Dish) at Lunch & Dinner Meals
Cuisine: Chettinad Recipe from Tamil Nadu in South India
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Passive Time: 5 hours
Servings: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients for Paruppu Urundai / Lentil Balls

1 cup Chana Dal / Bengal Gram Dal
1/4 cup Toor Dal
4 tbsp Flaxseed Powder
1 Onion
1 Dried Red chili
1 tsp Jeera / Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Saunf / Fennel Seeds
1 pinch Asafoetida / Perunkaayam / Hing
1/4 cup Coriander Leaves chopped
5 Curry leaves

Ingredients for Kuzhambu

1 Onion
2 Tomatoes
10 cloves Garlic
1 tbsp dried fruits Kokum / Garcinia
2 teaspoon Coriander (Dhania) Powder
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric powder (Haldi)
2 tbsp Cashews
1 tsp Black Sesame / Black Til
1/2 tsp Fenugreek Seeds / Methi / Venthayam
1 tsp Urad Dal / Split White Lentils
1 tsp Fennel seeds
1 tsp Black Pepper Powder
1/4 tsp Asafoetida / Perunkaayam / Hing
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 cup Coriander Leaves chopped
10 Curry Leaves
4 tsp Miso Paste (Healthy Salt Alternative. See Nutrition Science Highlights below)

How to Make Whole Food Plant Based Chettinad Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu Recipe

How to Make Paruppu Urundai

1. Soak kadalai paruppu / chana dal and thuvaram paruppu / toor dal overnight, or at least for an hour in hot water.
2. Grind with flaxseed powder, saunf, jeera, and red chili to a coarse paste.
3. Peel and chop onion finely. Mix into paruppu urundai batter along with asafoetida / perunkaayam / hing, coriander leaves, and curry leaves. Mix well.
4. Make small lemon sized balls of paruppu urundai and keep aside.

How to Make Chettinad Paruppu Urundai Kulambu

1. Peel and slice and chop onions into long, thin slices. Grind tomatoes and kokum into a smooth paste.
2. Cook chopped onion with tomato kokum paste, dhaniya powder, and turmeric powder. Add water if required, to make a thin paste.
3. While this is cooking, peel and crush garlic into a paste. Keep aside for ten minutes. Once ten minutes are over, add into the boiling vegetable curry, along with the paruppu urundai we have earlier prepared.
4. In a thick bottomed pan, dry roast methi / fenugreek seeds and urad dal on low flame until slightly browned. Do not allow to brown too much or get burnt. See Nutrition Science Highlights for Chettinad Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu below for details.
5. Grind roasted urad dal and methi / fenugreek seeds with cashews, black sesame, fennel seeds, black pepper powder, asafoetida, and miso paste to make chettinad paruppu urundai kuzhambu podi masala.
6. Once the paruppu urundai are fully cooked, switch off stove and mix in chettinad chettinad paruppu urundai kuzhambu podi masala we have prepared in the previous step.
7. Dry roast mustard seeds. As soon as they start sputtering, mix into chettinad paruppu urundai kuzhambu along with chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves. Serve fresh with red rice!

Nutrition Science Highlights for WFPB Chettinad Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu Recipe

1. Why Miso Paste? Miso paste is fermented & salted soya bean paste. American Heart Association Maximum recommended maximum daily salt intake of 3.75 grams per person to minimise risk of high blood pressure, stomach cancer and chronic kidney disease. In addition to helping us restrict salt intake, replacing salt with miso paste also helps by neutralising the negative effects of salt by soya phytonutrients. You can easily make fresh miso paste at home by mixing 100 grams of cooked soya paste with 10 grams of salt, or 10 tablespoons of cooked soya paste with 1 tablespoon of salt. If making at home, ensure to use immediately, or freeze in batches to use later. Or, simply use 3.75 grams of salt or less per day per person and add 18 to 20 grams (dry weight) of soya beans in any dishes, spread through the day!
2. Why legumes? Legumes are the #1 number food associated with long life in many recent large studies! They also fuel your gut microbiome through their resistant starch content and slow down glucose absorption, keeping your blood sugar levels steady - even in the next meal! This has been called the Second Meal Effect. This recipe is one of the yummiest ways to include pulses and legumes in your daily diet.
3. Why crush garlic and wait? When garlic is chopped, crushed, ground or bitten into, two chemicals stored in different parts of garlic's cells combine in a chemical reaction to form allicin. This is a slightly bitter compound that deters insects, but happens to be very beneficial to our health. Allicin helps reduce blood pressure and protect the heart and other organs, fight off lung infections, and reduce inflammation. Unfortunately, cooking destroys one of the enzymes required to form allicin. This can be overcome by crushing garlic and keeping it aside for ten minutes while the chemical reaction takes place. Once allicin is formed, it is heat stable and can be safely cooked. Alternatively, some raw garlic can be added after cooking, to a dish that has cooked garlic in it.
4. Why not tadka? Tadka, thaaLippu, oggaraNe. Tempering spices in oil is quintessential to Indian cuisine. This practice may have started as a compromise when whole nuts were unavailable, and indeed, is more common in inland, drier areas where nuts do not grow easily, all year round. You can enjoy the taste and fragrance, though, by just dry roasting the spices you require, without the oil, or even better, mixing spice powders directly into your dish!