Saagu

Saagu is a vegetable curry sort of gravy. In Bangalore, it is commonly served with Set Dosa or Rava Idli or sometimes even with Poori's.

It is a great way to get your daily serving of vegetables when having dosa or rava idli instead of just the daily serving of potatoes ;-) It's one of the few south-Indian dishes that my hubby will gobble up and ask for more.

Here goes:
A few things:
- All vegetables are chopped small.. maybe a 1cmX1cm cube size
- All vegetables shopped to the same size will ensure that things cook evenly.
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 1 cup chopped Chayote squash (Seeme badnekai in Kannada)
- 1 cup chopped potatoes
- 1 cup chopped bell peppers
- 1 cup chopped green beans / 1 cup chopped yellow squash/ 1 cup chopped zucchini
- 1 cup peas.
- 1 inch piece whole cinnamon
- 1.5 tbsp whole coriander seeds
- 2 cloves
- 2 black pepper corns
- 1 tsp poppy seeds (optional)
- 1/4 cup fresh/frozen coconut(you could add more if you like it very coconut-y)
- 2 tbsp roasted channa daal (dalia)
- 2-3 green chillies (I say, more the merrier- if you can handle it)
- 1 inch piece of ginger
- Tamarind (paste or whole). I use whole tamarind, and end up taking a ball of inch diameter
For seasoning:
- 1 tbsp oil
- Black mustard seeds - 1tsp
- curry leaves - 10
- Asafoetida (optional) - a pinch

You can add almost any vegetable, I just make sure I add potatoes, 1 squash of any kind, peas, and bell peppers, the rest - feel free to substitute with whatever you want. - Its a great way of getting rid of that stray carrot or squash lurking at the back of your crisper.

Pressure cook all vegetables (except onion) with salt and a pinch of turmeric. 1 whistle is usually enough, remember, we are making saagu and not pav bhaji. On the bright side, if you do end up over cooking the vegetables to a mush.. there is always pav bhaji!


Now for the curry paste:

Dry roast the cinnamon, cloves, poppy seeds, pepper corns and whole coriander seeds until they are fragrant. Cool down.
Grind, coconut, green chillies, ginger, tamarind and roasted channa daal and the roasted spices with enough water to create a paste.

This curry paste will give you a green curry. Some people make a red curry. They use dried red chillies instead of green chillies. If you want to go that route, roast the red chillies with the rest of the dry spices. I think about 5 red chillies should be enough. Also, skip the dalia (roasted channa dal). Instead, roast about 2 tsbp of raw split channa daal until it starts turning brown, and grind this along with the rest of the ingredients.

Once the paste is ready and the vegetables are cooked, we are ready to bring it all together.

- Heat 1 tsbp oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot, add asafoetida, mustard seeds, curry leaves.
- Add onions and cook until transparent.
- Then add the curry paste and heat it for a couple of minute stirring constantly.
- Now add the cooked vegetable.
- Add water if needed to bring it to a curry consistency.
- Now let this boil for 5-10 mins on low heat to allow the tamarind to cook and the flavors to blend.

When one, garnish with fresh chopped cilantro.

Enjoy with dosa, set dosa, rava idli, poori or roti's.