Black chickpeas/ kala channa sundal

Navratri is just around the corner which means it's time for Sundal. We can make Sundal with various legumes like black/white chickpeas, green gram, kidney beans, green peas, peanuts..Among the myriad varieties of Sundals, the one I'm talking about today is Black channa sundal. This recipe, like every other sundal recipe is easy to prepare, delicious and very healthy..

Ingredients serves 4

• black chickpeas- 1 1/2 cup 
• fresh coconut(shredded)- 3/4 cup
• oil- 2 tbsp
• mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• green chilies- 3-4 
• cilantro - 3/4 cup
• curry leaves- a few
• asafoetida - a pinch
• salt - to taste
• ginger - 1 tsp
• red chilies - 2

METHOD

• Soak channa overnight & pressure cook it with a pinch of salt
• Grind cilantro, coconut, green chilies, ginger with little water
• Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add asafoetida, red chilies & curry leaves.
• Add the ground paste and fry for 5 mins
• Add boiled channa, some salt and mix well and cook for 5 mins
• Serve hot

Kondakadalai Sundal/Channa Sundal

Navratri means "nava"- nine, "ratri"- night, worshiped for nine forms of Devi. It's a festival dedicated to Hindu goddess Durga Devi. The tenth day is commonly celebrated as Vijayadashami or Dasara. This festival is an important one which is celebrated all over India. Kondakalai Sundal is a traditional savory snack for vinayagar chathurthi and navratri. It's very healthy and guilt free sundal. This recipe is easy and flavorful one. Here you go with the recipe :)
                      

Ingredients 

• Kondakadalai / Channa - 1 cup
• Coconut grated - 2 tbsp 
• Salt - as needed 
• Oil - as needed 
• Mustard - 1 tsp 
• Urad dhal - 1/4 tsp
• Red chillies - 3 
• Asafoetida - pinch 
• Curry leaves- 1 spring 

Method

• Soak channa overnight and pressure cook with salt and water for 3-4 whistles.
• Heat a skillet with oil and temper with mustard, urad dhal, curry leaves, asafoetida and red chillies. Fry until it splutter and turns to golden brown. 
• Add cooked channa and stir for 2 minutes until moisture evaporates. 
• Now add grated coconut and fry for a minute. Transfer the sundal to serving bowl.

Tips 

• You can replace red chillies with green chillies.
• Instead of adding coconut as such you can grind coconut and green chillies together and add as a coarse paste at the last. 
• If your soaking the channa overnight you can pressure cook along with salt or the soaking time for channa is less, then you have to add salt at the time of cooking only. 

Try our other sundal recipe peanut sundal  

Linking parties hearth-soul-blog-hop|totally-talented-tuesdays

Verkadalai Sundal/ Peanut Salad

It is that time of the year again. The festivals are here. The place I belong (India) and the place I now call home (US) are both exuberant with lights, music, festivities and joy during this season (Sep to Dec)! The holiday mood is already set with all the fabulous decors in the stores and my Pinterest feed!

As I was looking at all the amazing ideas for Halloween, I just can’t help but notice how much similar Halloween is to Dussehra/Navaratri that we celebrate back home. It left me with so much surprise how different cultures in different parts of the world share a lot in common, despite the many contrasts that may exist.

Kids in India dress up in costumes for Navaratri just like how kids in US dress up for Halloween. However, Halloween is about scary costumes while Navaratri is all about costumes from Hindu epics and mythologies

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While Halloween is decorating the house with pumpkins, lanterns and haystacks,Navaratri is decorating the house with dolls and toys arranged on steps. 

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Trick-or-treating here is singing devotional songs there. And candies here are SUNDAL (salads) there! See, I told ya! So much in common.

Ah, did I just say SUNDAL … I want to make one right away and happily relive my childhood memories! And hey, we celebrate navaratri for 9 nights! Yes, we Indians take festivals bit too serious!! So, it means different types of sundals on each day. As Navaratri starts Sep 25 this year, it is going to be ‘Sundal Time’ on our blog.