Sweet Basil and Amla Dal, Lauki and mattar kootu

Fresh cut sweet basil from the balcony and two frozen Amla (Indian Gooseberries) inspired me to make this mixed dal dish. I ran out of onions at home so used spring onions and a small clove of garlic. Pressure cooked my dal with amla. And then the standard dal recipe with jeera and red chilli sauted with garlic, spring onions and a handful of chopped basil. Not to forget my ever so staple kuzhambu powder. I am sure this is nothing unusual but it is sheer joy to see a dish turn out well that too when ur kitchen has run out of supplies!

The other dish being lauki and mattar kootu ...Now that my mixie is broken, I had to made do with powders and pastes i made earlier. I generally prefer fresh ground sauce bases to make kootu. Today's version of the curry (which fell short of being a kootu) was boiled lauki and pre soaked mattar with salt, haldi, hing, puli inji paste, rasam powder and mint leaves ( fresh from the balcony)...Oh I m so proud of myelf...lol!

Indian gooseberry or amla is a good source of vitamin C. Ayurveda considers amla (in hindi) good for curing imbalances in Pittha. We find this fruit being used for culinary as well as medicinal purposes. A special mention here would be the amla pickle which is a great digestive and has anit oxidant properties.

 Image source: omagrobiotech.com