Beans Usili Recipe | Paruppu Usili Recipe with step by step photos and video recipe. usili is nothing but vegetables and crumbled lentils. Lengthy process of soaking  the lentils, grinding along with spices, steam cooking ground lentils, crumbling them and adding to the cooked vegetables. But ultimately the taste it gives to the bland veggies are too good. It is said to have its origin in the families of tamil brahmin.

I have made few additions to this recipe, like adding coconut, curry leaves and asafoetida while grinding lentils. This recipe can be made with long beans, cabbage, ivy gourd, banana flower, capsicum, cluster beans. Usili is best paired with vathalkulambu  or curd rice or ghee rasam. Here are capsicum usili, cabbage usili, etc.,

there are two ways of making this usili, few people add the crumbled lentils to the oil and fry it before adding the vegetables. another method is by cooking the vegetable first and mixing it with crumbled dal. By following the second method, the dish will turn out to be soft even when it is not hot. First method gives out roasted dal flavour but has to be taken immediately else it tends to get harden. It is up to you to chose the method, I have given the recipe for second one, as we mostly make dishes for lunch in the morning itself. So it has to stay soft till noon.

Beans Parupu Usili video recipe

Beans Usili Recipe :

Beans Usili Recipe – step by step pictorial description:

firstly, soak the chana dal/kadalai paruppu for an hour minimum

drain and add it in a blender/bowl. to this, add green chilli and red chilli. adding green chilli enhances the taste but it is optional. you can add just red chillies alone.

further, add fresh curry leaves to it

add coconut pieces. You can also add grated coconut.

next add salt to taste

asafoetida a pinch is added. This is again optional. But whenever we use dal, asafoetida and cumin is added by default.

to this mixture, turmeric powder is also added

lastly, cumin seeds are added to it.

mix well and grind it to a coarse paste without adding water. water from coconut, soaked dal is sufficient. If needed just sprinkle little water.

take portions of the dal mixture and steam cook in idli pan until it is firm. It takes approximately 10 minutes in medium flame to get cooked.

Take it out

crumble them finely once it is warm enough to handle

keep it aside until use. Now, heat a pan and add oil to it

splutter mustard seeds

when it crackles, add the soaked chana dal(optional) and finely chopped beans. Beans has to be finely chopped so that it looks beautiful on this curry

turmeric powder, salt is added

pour in required water for the beans to get cooked

close and cook until it is done. I would suggest to leave the beans in almost cooked stage that is with slight crunch so that it is good with the dal crumble.

open and fry until no water is left

lastly, add the crumbled dal mixture and

mix well until well combined. break out the large pieces if any.

serve hot with rice and curry