We keep rueing about healthy and homemade food, but succumb to our strong desire for taste and end up cooking tasty but not so healthy dishes. Turn yourself to the South. Well, you haven't known enough about healthy food until you have learnt about Kannadiga cuisine which requires negligible oil, does not involve overcooking and has a moderate blend of spices to just tickle one’s taste buds. The focus here is particularly on Bean Potato Majjige Huli. The dish is prepared by boiling potatoes and beans with curry leaves, and mish-mashing everything with coconut, rice and chilli paste and curd. Like many Kannada veg dishes, this one also doesn't miss the flavourful tadka of cumin, curry leaves and red chillies added in the end.
Knowing About Majjige Huli
Let's unwind and break down the word Majjige Huli first. It's a Kannada term, where Majjige means buttermilk and Huli means stew made of vegetables and lentils. Thus Majjige Huli can be called a curd-based vegetable stew. The dish Majjige Huli is cooked with a combination of various vegetables including bottle gourd, cucumber, ash gourd, beans and potatoes. Its specially cooked for ceremonies and festivals in Brahmin households and also is considered a Makar Sankranti food in Karnataka.
Majjige, as is clear from the meaning now, is similar to or almost the same as Chaas, which is prepared with sour curd, and is known as an individual food item made with multiple variations. Since the talk is on and around buttermilk, it's important to emphasise its benefits all over again as it helps to understand the reason for the inclusion of curd in the food across our country. Buttermilk is not just a great refreshing and cooling agent but is also extremely beneficial for digestion and metabolism. Besides, the riboflavin in buttermilk helps regulate the body's amino acids that make up proteins.
Preparation: 45 minutes
Cooking: 35 minutes
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups chopped beans
- 1 ½ cups potato cubes
- 1 tbsp salt
- ¾ cup whisked yoghurt
Masala Paste:
- 1 cup fresh coconut
- 2-3 green chillies
- 1 tbsp raw rice
For tempering:
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds
- 2 red chillies
- A few curry leaves
Method:
- In a pan, heat water, add chopped beans and potatoes, and curry leaves. Let everything come to a boil.
- Then add 1 tbsp salt and let it cook, until vegetables become soft.
- Meanwhile, grind rice. Chillies and coconut into a fine paste.
- When the potatoes and beans are cooked, then add the paste into it, mix well and allow it to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add whisked yoghurt, mix everything well and switch off the flame.
- Temper it with cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, red chillies and curry leaves.
- Serve hot.
This simple and subtle veg bowl has a soothing, tangy and mildly-spicy taste that everyone cannot immediately connect to or like. But after realising the health-oriented and hassle-free cooking approach to it, one may just include it forever in their list of comfort food.
