Harive soppu or amaranth leaves as it is known is a powerhouse of nutrients. This red leafy vegetable rich in iron and is a good source of protein, vitamins, calcium and what not; don’t believe me? Google it, you will be amazed to know its benefits.
Apart from being healthy, you can make tasty curry/gravy out of this super food. Last week when I found these in a market, I had to buy them. In my childhood days our backyard had a stretch of fresh amaranth leaves grown organically . We never had to buy them from market. Most of the vegetables were home grown that was used in our daily preparations.
I used amaranth leaves in a traditional Udupi cuisine called goddu huli/bolkoddel. Let me simplify this, goddu is a Kannada word meaning ‘plain’. Like I mentioned before, in Mangalore-Udupi region coconut is a main ingredient in making curries. A goddu huli is nothing but that makes no use of coconut. The gravy/curry is thickened with cooked daal. There is no grinding required and the leaves cook fast. So this is recipe is going to be easy in terms of ingredients and time factor.
There are other preparations of harive/amaranth leaves, which I will post soon, as I am seeing really good bunch of these in market.
So, here you have a simple recipe which is healthy as well as tasty. Try it and let me know what you think.
Ingredients
- Harive soppu/amaranth leaves 1 bunch
- Toor daal 1/2 cup
- Onions 1 medium
- Green chillies 2-3
- Curry leaves 1 strand
- Ginger 1 inch
- Rasam powder 2-3 tsp
- Tamarind paste 1 tsp
- Butter/ghee 3 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Turmeric 1tsp
- Jaggery 1/2 tsp
- Garlic 2 cloves
- Mustard 1tsp
Method
- Wash toor daal. Add turmeric and pressure cook it for 4-5 whistles and let it cool. Mash/grind them and keep it aside.
- Wash harive leaves thoroughly and finely chop them.
- Boil 1.5 cup of water in vessel.
- Add 2 tsp ghee,salt, tamarind pulp,jaggery ,slit green chillies,curry leaves and finely chopped ginger. Boil it for 1-2 minutes.
- Now add chopped onions and cook it for 2-3 minutes.
- Add amaranth leaves and close the lid. Cook it in low flame for 6-7 minutes.
- Add rasam powder and mashed toor daal. Mix well and bring it to boil.
- Finish it with garlic tadka/tempering.
- Serve hot with steamed rice topped with butter.
