Sundal Inspired Chickpeas – Tempered Stir Fried Chickpeas
Tempered Chickpeas with Coconut
Sundal is a surprisingly simple and extremely flavorful way of cooking your legumes. It is extremely popular around the nine festival evenings of Navaratri in South India. A time of the year, when the homes are decorated and pyramid shaped display of figures called golu.
Navratri and Golu
At heart this is a feel good toy festival, with an emphasis on women and children. People visit friends and family. Sundal is a easy an readily available snack.
What is a Sundal?
Sundal is a simple tempered stir-fry with legumes. An essential ingredient being fresh coconut. Simple and colorful and extremely handy. Vary this with any legume of choice.
. For best visual effects, you might try a rajma or red kidney bean version, or a black lentil variation. Nutty toasted mustard seeds, fragrant curry leaves round out the flavors of this versatile stir-fry.
My Sundal Variation
This variation is a little more complex and has my adaptation using garden tomatoes and finely chopped bell peppers. Here is an interesting NYT post. Thursday, was a surprise holiday for me. The kids idea of fun was to visit around lunchtime with the husband giving me a rare block of few hours. I stocked up for the weekend, with a lot of food which actually was quite a life saver.
The addition of the veggies, gave this dish a moister and deeper consistency, done in about 15 minutes seriously giving a more complex dish such as dish a run for your money. With a nod to the original, I offer you my Sundal Inspired Chickpeas.
A South Indian style tempered chickpea dish, Sundal makes a great tasting nutritious snack.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil
- ¼ teaspoon asafetida
- ¾ teaspoon mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder
- 8 to 10 curry leaves
- 1 tomato, chopped
- 1 small bell pepper, finely diced
- 11/2 cups of cooked chickpeas
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 2 tablespoons shredded coconut
- Chopped cilantro to garnish
Instructions
- Heat the oil and add in the asafetida and the mustard seeds and wait for them to pop.
- Add in the turmeric and red chili powder and curry leaves and stir well. Mix in the tomato and cook for 3 minutes until soft.
- Stir in the bell pepper and cook for a minute.
- Mix in the chickpeas and the salt and stir well to coat and cook for 2 to 3 minutes
- Stir in the shredded coconut and the chopped cilantro and serve as a wholesome snack.
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