May 3, 2007

ONION-LENTIL CHUTNEY

Onion-Lentil Chutney is my contribution to Nupur's (from "One hot stove") A to Z Indian vegetables event.This week's letter is "O".Thanks Nupur:)

Okay now,you might be wondering what's this fancy dish called "Onion-Lentil chutney"? HeHe!! It's nothing but a popular Maharashtrian Junka(Zunka,Jzunka,however you may want to spell or say it) with a twist and Bhakri!!;D

Usually,Junka is made with besan(Chickpea flour) and spices with smooth texture.I used Chana dal(red split peas/gram) to get a coarse texture and made a dry chutney with light spices which tastes delicious with Bhakri(roti made of Jowar flour).Make them and enjoy a simple rustic Indian meal.

Chana dal Junka with red onion:




You Need:



1/2 cup soaked,drained and ground Chana dal without water to a coarse paste(not smooth),1/2 large red onion,chopped fine,1" ginger,2 garlic,both minced,1-2 Jalapenos,minced,salt.
To season: 2 tbsp oil,1/2 tsp Mustard seeds,1 tsp Cumin seeds,few curry leaves,1 dry red chilly.
To garnish:Cilantro and Lemon slices.



How to make it:




Heat a non-stick pan with oil and add the seasoning ingredients.When they splutter,add onion and fry until soft.Add minced ginger-garlic-green chillies,stir fry for 5 mins.Now add a little salt and coarse paste of chana dal and stir fry until it is dry and cooked.






You could sprinkle some water now and then if you need it to cook the chana dal and cover with lid on low heat.When you think dal is cooked,adjust the spices and salt.Take off the heat,add cilantro and squeeze some lemon juice.Serve with Bhakri.





A simple but delicious meal of Junka-Bhakri!



To make Bhakris, follow these instructions and replace the rice flour with Jowar flour.Rest of the method is the same.Enjoy.

Have fun this weekend and I will see you all on Monday!!:))

52 comments:

Sia said...

so now u have started to name the dish also? ;) he he he...

Sia said...

looks like chuteny pudi which is served with jolada rotti in hubli-dharwad. ah!!! chuteny pudi with ennegai and that spicy red chilli chuteny!!! god!!! how many times i had this jolada rotti oota in dharwad:)

FH said...

Hi Sia,got to make it *O* right?! ;D

Chutney pudi is dry,fried dal and ground with spices,can be stored for a long time.
This is Maharashtrain Junka which is usually made of Besan but I made this with soaked and cooked Chana dal which is slightly wet and soft to eat, but not liquidy like regular Junka and can not keep more than 2 days:))
Phew,that was long.Try it ,you will love it:))

USHA said...

Hi Ashaji,

Chutney....looks great..to do vadai curry almost same, only thing we have to steam and cook with curry..

FH said...

Usha,is this the same ingredients for Vadas too?
I have always wanted to make the Vada curry! Make balls,steam and add to curry to simmer!That sounds so great,thank Usha.I will try sometime. Hugs:))

Sig said...

Wow Asha, that chutney almost looks like scrambled eggs :) I've never heard of Junka! Junka-Bhakri has a nice ring to the name... :)

Enjoy your weekend!

Chef Jeena said...

Hi Asha what a delicious recipe sounds great :)

FH said...

Sig,I was just thinking about you like what would Sig add to make it non-veg?! True!!:D
You could add Eggs and mince meat,it would be fabulous!:)
I love Junka Bhakri,very rustic tasty combo:))Have a fun weekend.


Hi Jeena,haven't seen you in a while.Hope you are well:))
Thanks Jeena,have a great weekend.

Suganya said...

Looks like paruppu usili. Looks like u have missed out chana dal in the ingredients list

FH said...

Oops!! Suganya,thanks for reminding me,nobody else did!!;D I will add.
It is little bit like Paruppu usili,but Mumbai way!
Thank you S,hugs:))

Arts said...

Zunka looks nice..
Pithala bhakri will be my entry for the next letter :)

Mishmash ! said...

heheh...when I first read the name and then looked at the pic, i didnt think it was chutney, I mean that soggy liquidy stuff we re usually used to but once I started reading then I realised its chutney powder :)))

Shn

Suganya said...

Hay it looks YUM!....Mouth watering one...Lentil Chutney.........different recipe...

FH said...

Aarti,thank God you didn't send it for this week!:))Looking forward to Pithla,yum!!I love it.

Shn,it's not chutney pd girl!It's soft cooked Chana dal, not dry like chutney pd.Since we don't add water ,it's not liquidy chutney either.
Somebody said Paruppu Usili,that's similar to this.Try it:)

Thanks Sukanya.It's very tasty with any roti,hope you try:))

Suma Gandlur said...

Somewhere in a Kannada website, I saw this recipe. They called it jhanaka or zhanaka, some thing like that. I thought that was a kannadiga dish.
I prepare onion patoli on the same lines without ginger and garlic.

Anonymous said...

thats a delicious healthy recipe..you always come up with new delicious recipe.. your family is so lucky

FH said...

Suma,it's the famous Junka from Maharashtra.Patholi and Pithlai are the similar dishes to this as well.Tastes great whatever we call it:))

Sushma,thank you so much!:))I have to keep looking for new recipes in all my cookbooks for these letter event!:D I love it,makes my brain little sharper than usual!:)

Ayesha Seerin said...

Looks almost like paruppu usili ...
Its only been 9 months since i started cooking , i am out of recipes already .. dunno how u manage to get new recipes after so many years of cooking

Pravs said...

for the first time i am hearing of this...looks delicious. Have not tried much of maharashtrain food...though i was in mumbai for a breif time.
Have a great weekend !

Sharmi said...

that looks real yummy and good one for "o". pics are great!

Kajal said...

Hi Asha,
I love your Chana dal Junka, Name is not important but your chutney is great with nice photo.Thanks for sharing maharashrian Junka. You use chana dal instead of besan but it is nice in taste with bhakri.

Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!

Coffee said...

GULP!!!!! Staying in bbay all my life I didn't know what the zunka was made up of!!!!!!! Not I got it!!!!! Nice chutney there!!!

FH said...

Ayesha,I didn't know about Paruppu Usili ,then I looked for the recipe yesterday and it does sound like that dish!Tastes great too:))
Ayesha,there are literally billions of dishes we haven't tried yet!;D

Hi Pravs,this is like farmers lunch in Maharashtra!Yummy.Try it.Have a great weekend:))

FH said...

Hi Sharmi,thank you girl!:)) Give it a try.There aren't lot of "O" recipes anyway!;D


Thank you Kajal.You are always so sweet!:)) Besan is ground Chana dal anyway,I thought I will twist the recipe little for texture!:)) Tastes great indeed.

Sharmi said...

Asha, I saw the link you gave in trupti's comments. OMG they have half of the blog links. but happy that they have direct links instead of copying. have you posted this in dining hall?

FH said...

Coffee!!! Lived in Mumbai,didn't know how to make Junka!!Bad girl!!;D
Tastes great,try it.Have a great weekend,hugs:)


Sharmi, T said she was emailed about the link and she is okay with it.I am a little upset they didn't ask me BEFORE linking but left a comment asking me to link their site bcos they linked me!I don't know how to contact them,I want them to unlink my posts.
I left a comment on DH but I guess most ppl don't mind the link.I don't know,will see.Thanks girl:)

Richa said...

hey asha, zunka err chutney looks great, excellent choice! love it! zunka bhakar is said to be poor man's meal, all the nutrition with minimum ingredients :)
there is one more maharashtrian dish 'vatleli dal' made out of ground chana dal, will check maybe nupur has it on her blog :)
btw ur comment on my post really cracked me up ;-)

FH said...

HeHe!! Richa, now you are talking like a pukka Maratha too!Ai-gaa!!:D
You made me even more confused now.

Anyway, I will look for that other one starts with V,sounds interesting.I love this Zunka too.It is farmer's food,rustic and I love those kinds.Thanks girl,have a great weekend:))

krystyna said...

I love everything with onion.
Have a peaceful, great weekend!

krystyna said...

Rock You photo looks so yummy. Great idea!

FH said...

Thank you Krystyna.Hope you make them and enjoy!:)
Have a great weekend.

Latha said...

Hey Asha,
Long time! I have just been so swamped at work! Have not had the time to visit my favorite blogs :-)
The zhunka looks yummy! That is very creative - the channa dal paste!
Love Latha

FH said...

Latha,don't worry about ot.Take care yourself first and then comes blogging,right?
This chutney is so tasty,hope you try with chapatis as well.Bhakri are the best.
Happy Mother's day mom!It's exciting.Hope you have fun.of course,there is one more week to go:))

Anonymous said...

asha, i am late. i love the way you present recipes. name is Original ;)

Anonymous said...

Hi Asha -- looks beautiful with those bright colors -- yellow, purple and green! And your rotis always look good enough to eat right off the screen. Have a great sneeze-free weekend :)

FH said...

HeHe!! Thanks Reena.I saw dishes with oven baked and Original for "O",mine is Onion!!!;D Lot better than others,eh? Thanks and no,you are not late.I have cut down to post just 2 events per week now.

Linda,it rained the whole day yesterday.So far I haven't taken a allergy shot,hurray!!
This is so tasty with even chapatis Linda,hope you try.Very easy to make too,you adjust the chillies to suit your taste.Enjoy:)

bee said...

lovely, though you could have saved it for 'z' - zunka. ;-)

FH said...

Thanks Bee:)
I know what's coming for Z already and do you know any for "X"?!I do!!Haha!!!! I know, I am evil!!;D

bee said...

ha! ha! it's all done. jai has made the dishes and taken pics upto 'z'.

'x' is his favourite. ;-)

FH said...

What???!!!!! Can we exchange hubbies Bee?!Arvind mows the lawn like a pro and makes lots of moola!!(that's about it);D
I have got one for X too,that is the only one I have! I am scratching my head for "Q" though!!:D

Mona said...

nothing like chutney & roti...all time favourite :))

I guee it will taste good with Maharashtran Khankdaa as well

Roopa said...

nice twist Asha i make this dry one with chowlikayi and some veges never tried only with onion means i need to cry a lot hehe...

thumba chenagide!

sunita said...

That's another new one for me...hope you had a great weekend...

FH said...

I agree Mona,nothing more comforting than roti and dal chutney!:))
Hey,what's Kaankdaa?!You can't stop there girl,now I have to Google it!:D

Roopa,kadlebele,erulli jote chennagirutte,try it.Chowlikai tindu tumba dina aaytu,illi sikkolla nanage!:))

Hi Sunita,thanks girl,we did!:))
Went to see Spiderman 3 and enjoyed it.It was good,not great as the fiest one but not bad either.

ServesYouRight said...

Love the soft chana dal idea - you are simply amazing!

Smita

FH said...

Thank you Smita!Hope you try:))

TheCooker said...

Your presentation is always so good!
The zunka-bhakri looks positively yummy.

http://the-cooker.blogspot.com

FH said...

Thank you TC!:))
Love this combo,so authentic and comforting specially when the Bhakri is just out of the Tawa!

Anonymous said...

Hello,
This is indeed a maharastrian dish called "VATALYA DAALICHE PITHALE".. means Pithale made out of grinding chana daal unlike the regular one which is made out of besan.

SeeC said...

Asha, I wish to comment on all your posts...Just one word Simply Superb!!!
Hope I will reach your standards oneday.

FH said...

Thank you Seec! You can easily build up a blog like these,just need to spend some time and effort,not that hard!:) Enjoy the recipes sweetie.

FH said...

Sure Dazy!! Why not? :D