Kohlrabi & Salsa Dhal

Necessity is the mother of invention. It is always the case in my household. Especially on those days when the refrigerator looks embarrassingly empty, save for a few odd half-filled jars and boxes.

All I wanted to make on that dreary day was some hearty, comforting dhal and rotis for dinner. I had set my mind on adding tomatoes, but of course, there were no tomatoes to be found. What I did find, however, were two half-empty jars of salsa. And no chips. I paused. The rusty gears began turning in my head. 

Salsa has tomatoes. 

And onion. 

And garlic. 

And cilantro. 

And jalapeno.

A light bulb glowed in the dull recesses of my mind. I love these rare moments. Especially when they are related to eating.

I pulled out the jars and decided to add the contents to my dhal. Without the husband knowing. And it worked! He polished the plate without realizing anything. 

If ever you want to try something slightly different with dhal, do not hesitate to add salsa to it. It boosts the flavor in a subtle and wonderful way. Plus, it saves precious time and effort involved in dicing and putting together all the ingredients. If you are wondering about the vinegar, let me assure you, it just takes the place of a drizzle of lemon juice. 

So, here's how I "recreated" dhal that evening. I used three types of dhal, added lots of flavor, and one unique vegetable.

Ingredients (serves 6-8):

1. 1/3 cup uncooked thoor dhal / yellow lentils / thuvaram paruppu
2. 1/3 cup uncooked moong dhal / payatham paruppu
3. 1/3 cup uncooked black-eyed beans
4. 1 small-medium onion, finely chopped
5. 1 cup salsa (or, if you would rather save the salsa for chips, use 2 tomatoes, 3 cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup coriander leaves/cilantro, and the juice of 1 lemon)
6. 2 inch block of ginger
7. 2 green chillies (if the salsa is mildly spiced)
8. 1 Kohlrabi / squash / pumpkin, peeled & diced (kohlrabi is a very interesting and flavorful vegetable that belongs to the cabbage family. It goes very well in Indian dhals)
9. 5 cups water
10. 2 teaspoons dhania powder / coriander powder
11. 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
12. 1.5 teaspoons salt (or as needed)
13. 1 tablespoon ghee / clarified butter (it's ok, this amount is harmless. It amps up the flavor like you would never believe)
14. 2 teaspoons cumin seeds / jeera
15. 1/4 teaspoon hing / asafoetida

Preparation:

1. Grind the salsa (or tomatoes, garlic, and coriander leaves) along with ginger and green chillies. Set aside. 
2. Wash and drain the three kinds of dhals (the thoor dhal, moong dhal and black-eyed beans). Add everything to a pressure cooker (it's so much faster) along with the onion, water, the ground puree (from above), turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt, and diced kohlrabi . Stir well. Close the pressure cooker and cook on medium heat for 6-7 whistles. Turn off the heat and wait for the pressure to come down. If you are not using a pressure cooker, just cook everything on a stove top. You just need a lot of patience.
3. When the pressure cooker is safe to handle (when all the pressure is released and settled), open it carefully. If you want to add more water at this point, add more water and stir everything together. Check for seasonings.
4. Heat the ghee. When it is hot, add the cumin seeds and hing and stir it around for a few seconds. Add this aromatic seasoning to the dhal and mix well. If you didn't use salsa, this is the time to squeeze some lemon juice.

 Serve hot with rotis or rice. This is so easy to prepare (you literally dump everything in the pressure cooker and let it do its thing), and very flavorful.  I know the picture looks bland and boring, but you should attribute that to my poor photography skills alone and nothing else. Trust me.