White Pumpkin and Garbanzo Kootu

Gosh I miss this space so much! Its been a long time since I've been here and updated you with what's cooking in my kitchen. If any of you want to give me a good Christmas gift, give me a clone of myself so I could make that one post a recipe every other day. 

The holidays are already here and I still can't believe the year is almost up. Where did the time go? 

My little one turned one last month and it seems like she was just born. She is completely mobile now..so you can imagine how my life has become. She seems to be climbing on everything and everywhere. Anything that is inside a cabinet at her level is thrown out all the time. She seems to especially love the noise with which metal hits the wood floor. Yes, my life is noisy and messy but I'm thoroughly enjoying it. 

This recipe is for a simple side dish to go with rotis or even to mix with rice. My mom makes this quite often for us. If there's a veggie that can be made into a kootu, we'd have kootu that day. Some kootu's have cooked daal in them and some don't. This is of the latter variety. And that make this an easy recipe with not much prep work needed. 

Start with some white pumpkin - I miss the fresh cut wedges that are available back in India. This is how we get them here. Little blocks wrapped in plastic with a bar code and price on top.

Remove all the seeds and cut the veggie into small chunks.

Also, get the channa ready. I used a canned version which does not require any soaking. If you are using the dried version, it will need to be soaked and pressure cooked first...which makes this a little more difficult recipe.. all I use to measure difficulty is to see how many dishes you'll have to clean at the end of cooking!

In a small pan, add about 1 tsp of oil and let it heat up. When the oil is hot, add 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds and a few fresh curry leaves.

Add the chopped pumpkin pieces in and fry for a min. Then add a pinch of turmeric and salt and then add water enough to cover the veggies.

Add the soft garbanzo to the pan along with the pumkin. Mix well and let this cook together until the pumpkin pieces are tender and soft.

While that is cooking, let's make the seasoning paste. This is what is going to add all the flavor in the kootu.

Dry roast all these ingredients below until the aroma wafts out and then add them to a mixer to make a paste.

Channa Daal - 1 tsp
Coriander Seeds - 2 tsps
Methi Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Red Chillies - dried - about 2-3
Grated Coconut - about 1 heaped tsp

Grind everything together with a little water to make a smooth paste.

Once the pumpkin is cooked tender, add the paste to the kootu and mix well.

Let this cook in simmer for about 5 mins.

To top off with a tadka, add a tsp of ghee and when its hot, add some Shah Jeera or regular jeera to the ghee and 1 or 2 red chillies and 1/4 tsp of whole urad. As soon as it sizzles, pour on top of kootu and mix well.

And its ready for you now. Are you ready for it?

Enjoy. Peace Out!