Bisi Bele Bath
Bisi bele bath is a rice and lentil dish prepare along with lots of veggies and spice powders.
Ingredients
To cook the dal and rice
- 75 grams rice
- 25 grams toor dal
- 1.5 cups water, to cook the dal and rice
To prepare bisi bele bath
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp whole black pepper
- 1/8 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 3-4 red chilies
- 1 lemon sized tamrind
- 1 medium sized onion, thinly sliced
- 1 medium sized tomato, chopped
- 1-2 green chilies
- 300 grams mixed vegetables (carrots, beans, capsicum, potato, pumpkin, ash gourd, yam, brinjal, green peas, lima beans, broad beans)
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tbsp sambar powder
- salt, to taste
- a few curry leaves
- 1/2 tsp idli/tiffin sambar powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- oil, to cook
- handful of chopped coriander leaves, to garnish
To temper
- 2 tbsp ghee
- handful of split cashews
- 1 tbsp oil
- 2 bay leaves
- 2-3 sticks of cinnamon
- 5-6 cloves
- 2 marathi moggu or kapok
- 1/8 tsp hing
Instructions
To cook dal and rice
- Wash the dal and rice together and transfer it to a pressure cooker. Fill the cooker with 1.5 cups of water. Pressure cook for 4-5 whistles or until well cooked.
- Let the pressure release naturally. Open the lid and mash the dal and rice with a potato masher and set aside.
To prepare bisi bele bath
- Soak the tamrind in 1/3 cup of water for 15-20 minutes.
- Chop all the vegetables to bite sized pieces and set aside
- Chop the onions and tomatoes, extract the tamrind juice and prepare the rest of the ingredients required for the bisi bele bath.
- In the same pressure cooker, add some oil and let it heat.
- Add the mustard, cumin, pepper corns, fenugreek and red chilies to the oil and let it crackle.
- Add the curry leaves, onions, green chilies and cook till onions turn pink.
- Add the tomatoes along with a pinch of salt and cook till it turns soft and mushy.
- Add all the vegetables and mix them well along with the onion tomato mixture.
- Add the sambar powder, turmeric powder, salt and the tamrind juice to the veggies. Mix them well.
- Add some water and let the vegetables cook for 4-5 minutes on a medium flame
- Add the rice and dal to the pressure cooker and mix them well. Let it cook till almost 80% of the water is absorbed.
- Meanwhile, prepare the ingredients required for tempering.
- In a tadka pan, add the oil and fry the whole garam masala (bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, marathi moggu) along with hing.
- Add the fried whole garam masala to the pressure cooker and mix well.
- When almost 80% of water is absorbed, switch off the stove and add the garam masala powder and the idli/tiffin sambar powder to the cooker along with the tempered whole garam masala.
- In a tadka pan, add the ghee and fry the cashews till golden brown.
- Add the fried cashews to the pressure cooker and mix well.
- Finally add some coriander leaves.
- Serve it hot along with fried pappads and raita on the side. Swirl in some ghee just before serving.
Notes
- To cook the dal and rice, add water according to the quality of the dal and rice you have taken. 1.5 cups is an approximate amount.
- Chop all the vegetables to the same size to make sure they cook for the same time.
- Add water to just immerse the vegetables for cooking them.
- The tiffin sambar powder recipe will be posted soon. You can also use store bought powder if you do not have it at home.
- Bisi bele bath turns thick on cooling. So make sure that you turn of the flame when it reaches the desired consistency.