Hesaru Kaalu Recipe | How to Make Hesaru Kaalu

Vegan Herasu Kaalu Recipe

This side dish is delicious and goes well with anything from rice to rotis to ragi mudde.

Hesaru Kaalu or Green gram dal is a storehouse of nutrition, high in dietary fibre, protein, and folates among many other important micro and macro nutrients.

This side dish is delicious and goes well with anything from rice to rotis to ragi mudde.

Try our whole food plant based version of the Hesaru Kaalu Recipe and send us pictures!

Whole Food Plant Based Hesaru Kaalu Recipe

Course: Side Dish for Course 3 (Grain Dishes) at Lunch & Dinner Meals
Cuisine: North Karnataka Recipe from South India
Prep Time: 10 min
Passive Time: 6 hours
Cook Time: 20 mins
Servings: 2 Cups People

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup Hesaru Kaalu / Sabut Moong Dal / Whole Green Gram
1 Onion
2 Tomatoes
4 cloves Garlic
1 cm piece Ginger
1 Green Chili
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
2 tsp Dhaniya / Coriander Seeds Powder
1 tsp Jeera / Cumin Powder
1 tsp Black Pepper Powder
1 tbsp Almonds, chopped
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
10 Curry Leaves
2 tbsp Coriander Stems & Leaves chopped
4 tsp Miso Paste (Healthy Salt Alternative. See Nutrition Science Highlights below)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Soak hesaru kaalu / sabut moong dal / whole green gram overnight or at least for 6 hours. Cook until half cooked.
2. While this is being cooked, peel and chop onion into long, thin pieces. Chop tomatoes into small pieces. Peel and chop ginger into tiny pieces. Slit green chili along its length. Add to hesaru kaalu and continue cooking.
3. While this is cooking, peel and crush or grind garlic into a paste. Keep aside for ten minutes.
4. Once garlic has rested for minutes, mix into the hesaru kaalu on the stove along with turmeric powder, dhaniya powder, jeera powder, and black pepper powder.
5. After a minute or two, once the raw smell goes away, turn off stove and add in chopped almonds, curry leaves, chopped coriander leaves, and miso paste. Mix well.
6. Dry roast mustard until it just starts sputtering. Once it does, mix into hesaru kaalu. Serve fresh with bajra roti or ragi mudde!

Plant Based Chef Pro Tips

1. For added nutrition, soak hesaru kaalu / green gram two days in advance and sprout!

Nutrition Science Highlights for WFPB Hesaru Kaalu 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!

Recipe by Prathima Prashanth, Health Coach & Plant-based Cooking Expert, NutritionScience.in