Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Spinach Molagootal

Hi all!
I’m back after being out of circulation for a couple of weeks. We had a wonderful (albeit a little hot and insanely hectic) time in India and before we knew it, an entire month had gone by in the blink of an eye! Since our return, lethargy coupled with zero motivation has been making it hard for me to post anything at all. I have been busy in the kitchen though.

A few days back, I made a molagootal following a recipe that I first came across on a blog a few years back, and it has since become one of my favorites. Sadly though, the blog has been silent for too long now.
I did not make too many changes to the original recipe.

Spinach Molagootal (adapted from
Saffron Hut’s blog)
Ingredients:
2 cups frozen spinach
¼ tsp turmeric powder
Salt

1 tsp oil
2 tsp urad dal
1 tsp cumin
3-4 red chillies

¾ cup toor dal, cooked
3 Tbsp coconut

For seasoning:
1 Tbsp oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp urad dal
A pinch of asafoetida
4-5 curry leaves
1-2 red chillies

Method:
Cook the frozen spinach along with turmeric and salt in ½ cup water. Blend to get a coarse paste. (I used my immersion blender.)

Heat oil in a small pan and roast the urad dal, red chillies and cumin seeds. Grind to a fine paste with the coconut.

Combine the spinach puree/paste, ground coconut-spice mixture and the cooked dal. Add a little bit of water. Cook and bring to a boil.

Heat the rest of the oil in the pan. Add all the ingredients for the seasoning. Pour the tempered oil over the molagootal.

Serve hot with rice.


This is being sent to Sra who is hosting the fourth edition of My Legume Love Affair.

27 Burps:

Finla said...

Welcome back

Sig said...

Welcome back TBC! :)

sra said...

Welcome back!

Unknown said...

Comfort food..Glad you had a graet time in India..looking forward to our India trip..

Laavanya said...

Hey.. look who is back posting recipes again. So good to have you back and that spinach milagootal looks so pretty. I love saffron hut too - beautiful picturs and yummy recipes.

Priyanka said...

Yipee...glad to have u back....never heard of spinach moolagootal (quite the tongue twister). That makes for one nutritious spinach recipe (we usually make something similar but instead of toor dal, use besan as a base). I am going to be posting different spinach recipes soon.

Purnima said...

Hey TBC,
How time flies when we are on a vacation! Welcome back, awesome recipe!

Suganya said...

This sounds so different for me. Nice recipe. Looks so good. YUM!

Shreya said...

i have never had spinach this way. looks tasty..will try it:-)

mitr_bayarea said...

Welcome back- India trip is always hectic and flies away so quickly.

I too use the same method for keerai molakootal, loved the photos with the seasoning.

Rajani said...

welcome back!!!

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Welcome back. I'm sure you had a fabulous vacation.
We have a variety of molagootal all the time but I never thought of turning spinach into one. looks interesting.
Doesn't it taste too bland?

Mallika said...

Welcome back! Great recipe. I've never heard of Moolagootal before. Where's it from?

Cilantro said...

Love the color. I definetly try any recipe with spinach. Thanks for the recipe

anudivya said...

You have a great collection of recipes yourself... especially digging the raspberry brownie cups! They are delightful.

Sunshinemom said...

My favourite spinach recipe! Welcome back:)

Deepthi Shankar said...

welcome back .. hope ypu had a great vacation .. molagootal sounds very yummy ...

TBC said...

HC, Sig, Sra, Divya, Laavanya, Priyanka, Purnima, Mitr and Rajani- thank you!:)

Sukanya & Shreya- hope you get a chance to try it out.

Aparna- yeah, we had a great time.
The molagootal tasted pretty good actually. The spice mix along with the coconut helped to give the otherwise bland spinach a very nice flavor. Do try it at least once.:)


Mallika- thank you.:)
Molagootal is a dish commonly prepared by Iyers from the Palakkad region of Kerala.

Cilantro- you are very welcome.:)

Anudivya- welcome!
It's nice to see you here.

Sunshinemom- thank you.:)


Deesha- We had a wonderful time in India, thank you.:)

Mandira said...

Welcome back TBC :) Tell us more about your india trip!

sra said...

Hi TBC, yes, this will qualify. Please send me the info.

Sujatha said...

Welcome back! Waiting to see more of your yummy recipes :)

daphne said...

Weclome back!!! I have never used frozen spinach before but that looks yummy!

Shah cooks said...

welcome back..time home flies faster than here. this molagootal is getting popular on the blogs..

Anonymous said...

glad you had a good time off...love molagootal

Rajitha

Vaishali said...

Yum yum yum. Anything with spinach is welcome, and especially something so gorgeous as this molagootal. Welcome back, TBC. I've missed you!

Jaya M said...

Looks good and do let us more about the trip .
hugs and smiles

TBC said...

Mandira- thank you:-) I wish I'd met you while we were both living in Buffalo.:(


Sra- :D


Sujatha- thank you!:-)


Daphne- thank you.:-)


Shaheen- thank you! and tell me about it! We went for 4 weeks and it was after 3 long years. A trip home is never long enough.:-(


Rajitha- madam! so what's the latest with you? :-)


Vaishali- awww, what a nice thing to say! :-)
I'm not too fond of spinach but this dish was good. It has to be spiced up or else it could turn out to be really bland.


Jaya- thank you.:-)

Post a Comment

I'm glad you're here! Thanks for stopping by.