Paruppu Usili Recipe

Paruppu Usili Recipe is a popular lentil and vegetable dish all over India specially in the Iyengar community. You can make this with wide variety of vegetables including beans, string beans, carrots, banana flower, cabbage and many more. In this blog post I have shared 2 version of making paruppu usili at home with step by step pictures and video.

Paruppu Usili

Paruppu usili is a popular vegetable dish in the iyengar community. I have quite a few iyengar recipes in my blog. All the credits go to my friend, She taught me lots of her mom's recipes. This is one of the recipe which she bought for lunch one day. I always wanted to try this recipe for a very long time and finally made it few weeks back and the result was exactly same as hers.

Jump to:

• About Usili (Paruppu Usili)
• Paruppu Usili Ingredients
• Vegetable used in Usili
• Two Ways of Cooking Usili
• How to Make Paruppu Usili (Stepwise Pictures)
• Variations
• Expert Tips
• FAQ
• 📖 Recipe Card

What is Usili?

Usili is a lentil and vegetable combo dish usually made for lunch with other kulambu and accompaniments. It is highly nutritious and taste delicious with rice and spicy gravies.

The combination of little crispy and spicy dal cooked along with the soft tender beans was amazing. It goes perfectly with any spicy gravies. You can check out all the kulambu recipes.

About Usili (Paruppu Usili)

Paruppu usilli is a popular Tamil dish. Its made by frying toor dal and Bengal gram dal with red chilies and french beans/cluster beans/plantain flowers, then seasoning it with asafoetida, curry leaves, and mustard seeds. During a meal, it is usually served with rice and mor kuzhambu.

You can make paruppu usili with variety of vegetables including beans, string beans, carrots, banana flower, cabbage and many more. There is no particular lentils for this recipe, you can use moong dal, toor dal or chana dal as you prefer. Making paruppu usili involves few steps. Soaking lentil, grinding with chillies and asafoetida. Once the soaking and grinding is done, there is 2 ways you can make paruppu usili.

You can directly add the dal to a kadai and stir fry for few minutes till the dal is cooked and mix in the steamed vegetables. or you can steam the ground dal in a steamer and then mix in with the vegetables to make usili. In this blog post, I have shared two ways of making paruppu usili so you can choose which ever method you prefer.

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Paruppu Usili Ingredients

Vegetables - for making usili you can use wide variety of vegetables. Some of the most common vegetables for usili is carrots, beans, long beans, string beans, cabbage, banana flower, beets and more.

Lentil | Dal - I like to use toor dal for making usili. But you can use chana dal or moong dal as well. One important thing is to soak the dal for few hours to soften it up. So it cooks faster.

Dry Red Chillies - depending on your spice level you can adjust the dal quantity.

Tempering Spices - mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida is tempered in oil before cooking dal and vegetables.

Oil - I like to use gingelly oil while making usili. But you can use ghee as well.

Vegetable used in Usili

Usili is a lentil and vegetable combo dish usually made for lunch with other kulambu and accompaniments. It is highly nutritious and taste delicious with rice and spicy gravies.

For making usili you can use wide variety of vegetables. Some of the most common vegetables for usili is carrots, beans, long beans, string beans, cabbage, banana flower, beets and more.

For fancier version, you can use capsicum, spinach leaves or even broccoli can be used. The process is very simple, you steam vegetables, cook dal and cook both together.

Two Ways of Cooking Usili

Over the years of making this dish, I have perfected it. So here are my expert tips for best results. You can make paruppu usili two ways. The recipe starts by soaking lentil, and grinding with chillies and asafoetida. Once the soaking and grinding is done, there is 2 ways you can make paruppu usili.

Stir Frying - You can add the ground dal directly into oil and stir fry constantly on low heat till the dal gets crumbly in texture. This process involves more oil and also more cooking time. This taste really delicious in my opinion.

Steaming & Frying - This process is a healthier option. it involves steaming the ground dal in idli plates. Crumbling them in a bowl and then stir frying with the vegetables. This is faster way and also consumes less oil.

How to Make Paruppu Usili (Stepwise Pictures)

Pre-Prep

1)Chop the vegetable you are using into small pieces. Here I am using beans. I soaked my toor dal for 3 hours prior cooking to soften the dal.

Pro Tip: Instead of using toor dal, you can use chana dal as well.

Cooking Vegetables

2)Take green beans in a pot with some salt. Add ½ cup of water and cook covered for 5 to 8 minutes on low heat till the vegetable is cooked.

3)Now the green beans is cooked. Set this aside till use.

Grinding Soaked Dal

4)Take dry red chillies in a blender jar.

5)Add in turmeric powder, salt and asafoetida.

6)Pulse this few times so the dry red chillies is crushed coarsely.

7)Add in the soaked dal. I am using toor dal in this recipe.

8)Pulse the dal few times so the dal is ground. Don't add water when grinding.

Cooking Dal

9)Heat oil in a kadai. Add in mustard and urad dal. Let them sizzle.

10)Add in the ground dal mixture into the oil.

11)Stir fry the dal on low heat for 5 to 6 minutes till the mixture gets crumbly. This process requires a bit of extra time and extra oil to cook the lentil.

12)After few minutes of stirring, the dal is roasted and cooked.

13)Now the mixture looks crumbly too.

Making Usili

14)Add the cooked green beans back into the cooked dal.

15)Toss it to combine. At this point you can add in some grated coconut if you want.

16)Let the dal and vegetable cook on low heat for 5 more minutes. if the mixture looks too dry, you can sprinkle some water.

17)Serve.

Variations

This version of paruppu usili is made with carrots. This process involves steaming the ground dal and then mixing with the vegetable. It is a lot faster and requires less oil.

In this recipe for carrot usili. I used split yellow moong dal which is lighter on the tummy than other dals. Make sure you soak the dal for 2 hours, this makes them soft and cooks faster. Once the dal is steamed, crumble them in a bowl and toss them with vegetables of choice.

In this recipe, I added some garlic. you can skip if you want. And in the end you can add a handful of grated coconut.

Ingredients

• 2 peeled & chopped Carrot
• 2 tbsp Coconut Oil
• 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1 tsp Split Urad dal
• 2 Dry Red Chillies
• ½ tsp Asafoetida
• 2 sprig Curry leaves
• Salt to taste

For Grinding

• 1 cup Yellow Split Moong Dal
• 2 Dry Red Chillies
• 3 Garlic
• ½ tsp Asafoetida

How to Make Carrot Usili

1)Soak moong dal for 2 hour. Strain them in a colander to remove excess water.

2)Take dal in a blender along with all ingredients given for grinding. I added dry red chillies, garlic, asafoetida.

3)grind the mixture to a paste. Don't add too much water when grinding.

4)Spoon the lentil mixture in idli plates and steam for 10 minutes till the dal is cooked.

5)Remove the cooked dal mixture to a bowl and let them cool a bit.

6)Crumble the dal mixture into fine texture and set aside.

7)Heat oil in a pan, add tempering ingredients and let them sizzle.

8)Let the lentil get golden and toasted.

9)Add in carrots along with some salt.

10)Stir fry the carrots till it is cooked and tender.

11)Add in the crumbled dal mixture and mix well.

12)Let the dal get toasted and cooked.

13)Serve carrot usili hot with any curries.

Expert Tips

• Instead of green beans. You can use variety of vegetables of choice.
• I used toor dal, you can use chana dal or moong dal.
• Make sure the dal is soaked few hours for faster cooking. 
• Don't use water when grinding dal.
• Make sure you add coconut in the end for fresh taste.

FAQ

Which vegetables to use in usili?

for making usili you can use wide variety of vegetables. Some of the most common vegetables for usili is carrots, beans, long beans, string beans, cabbage, banana flower, beets and more.

Which Dal or Lentil is used in making usili?

I like to use toor dal for making usili. But you can use chana dal or moong dal as well. One important thing is to soak the dal for few hours to soften it up. So it cooks faster.

Which is healthier green peas or green beans?

Peas also contain more iron, potassium, and magnesium. Green beans have nearly 1.5 times the calcium and slightly more sodium.

More Iyengar Recipes

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