Cooks Joy

Raw Tomato Kootu (Raw Tomato and Dal Gravy)

Although summer is almost gone in this part of the world, this particular kootu never goes out of taste for me. Kootu is a mix of vegetables and lentils and is made pretty often at least in my house. You can keep it simple by just adding a tadka to it or you can roast and grind certain ingredients and add to kootu. Either way it tastes great and goes well with rice or with chapatis.

In the first few years of our gardening I absolutely had no clue as to what can be done with raw tomatoes and we used to patiently wait for it to ripen. It was only when my MIL visited us a few years ago I even heard of such a thing as kootu with raw tomatoes. Needless to say I had an instant liking to the slightly tangy and spicy kootu and I wait for the summers just to make this kootu.

Ingredients
5 green tomatoes (about 2 cups chopped)
1/4 cup moong dal
1 cup water
1/2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
A pinch of asafoetida
Salt
3 tsp Kootu Podi

Notes
Preparing the kootu podi in bulk and storing in airtight containers helps to makes kootu in a jiffy.

Method
Prepare the kootu podi by roasting and grinding the ingredients as mentioned in the Avarakai Kootu post.

Raw tomatoes from my garden.