Kerala style cheera parippu curry is a popular and nutritious curry made with green amaranth (pacha cheera) and toor dal.
This is a tasty and nutritious recipe goes well with rice.
How to make Kerala style cheera parippu curry
Here I’m explaining the ingredients and method of making Cheera parippu curry.
Prepare time: 10 min
Cook: 20 min
Ready in: 30 min
Cuisine: Kerala
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- Toor dal or any dal – 1/2 Cup
- Water – 1.5 Cup
- Turmeric powder – 1/4 Teaspoon
- Salt – To Taste
- Roughly chopped green amaranth (pacha cheera) – 1.5 Cups
- Scraped coconut – 1/2 Cup
- Shallots (chuvannulli) – 3 Nos
- Garlic – 3 Cloves
- Cumin (jeera) – 1/2 Teaspoon
- Green chili – 1 No
To temper
- Coconut oil – 1 Tablespoon
- Ghee – 1/2 Teaspoon (optional/ avoid for a vegan recipe)
- Mustard seeds – 1/2 Teaspoon
- Dried red chili (unakka mulaku) – 2 Nos
- Curry leaves – 1 Sprig
- Red chili powder – 1/2 Teaspoon (optional)
Method
- Soak toor dal for at least 3 hours.
- Cook ingredients 1-4 (toor dal, turmeric powder, salt and water) in a pressure cooker. Or cook in normal pot, but it will take more time.
- Switch off the flame and keep the cooker unopened for sometime.
- Open the cooker once pressure releases.
- Put back the cooker over flame, add water if required.
- Add the chopped cheera/ green amaranth.
- Cook the amaranth lightly, don’t overcook.
- Grind ingredients 6-10 (coconut, shallots, garlic, cumin seeds and green chili) into a smooth paste.
- Add the coconut paste to amaranth and toor dal mixture and heat up.
- Don’t boil the mixture, switch off the flame immediately when it starts to boil.
- Prepare the tempering as below.
- Heat coconut oil in a pan and little ghee. Avoid ghee if you are opting for a vegan version.
- Add mustard seeds and splutter it.
- Add curry leaves and dried red chili fry till fragrant.
- Switch off the flame and add red chili powder and combine.
- Pour the prepared tempering over the prepared cheera parippu curry and mix.
- Keep it covered for sometime and serve hot with rice or ghee rice.
Pro tips & tricks by Anishya
- Don’t boil the coconut mixture after adding to the curry, else the curry won’t taste good. Switch off the flame immediately when it starts to boil.
- Adjust the thickness of the cheera parippu curry by adding hot water. Add hot water if you need a loose consistency.
- Adding red chili powder while preparing the tempering is optional but it will give a nice red color to the dish.
Variations you can try
- You can use Palak or Spinach or Moringa leaves instead of green amaranth.
Storage tips
- Cheera parippu curry will get thicken over time. If the curry is thick after storing for a longer time, add boiling water and make it loose.
Best serving combos suggested by Anishya
- Serve with rice or roti or chapati or any kind of bread as a side dish.
- Ghee rice + Cheera parippu curry + Papad + Pickle + Chicken/ Beef roast