Pappulusu..Moong Dal Lemon Soup

For those who are familiar with stories written in telugu with a village backdrop, the popular combo pappu charu - uppu chepa (Toor Dal Rasam and Fish fry) doesn't need any further explaination...This's a famous village dinner menu in Andhra Paradesh..In my hometown Nellore, Pappu charu is not made very often..Instead we make Pappulusu (Moong dal rasam with lemon flavour) and serve it with non-veg dry items...Fish is the most common mate to this Pappulsu...

So on one fine sunday mid-morning my hubby reminded me of this combo and hence I decided to cook that for lunch...I started making fish fry, but with my cooking skills all I could do is to transform fish fry to a gravy like fish curry..The saga of how this happened is another story...

But it's soulmate Moong Dal Rasam turned out to be a success. This's a very easy recipe..with the most common n simple ingredients...goes well with any dry curries...aloo fry, okra fry or any non-veg dry curry...Here goes the recipe for pappulusu,

Ingredients:

Moong Dal - 1 cup (dry roast them in an Iron Skillet until sligh brownish color, set aside to cool - you can even skip this step)

Onion - 1 small - sliced

Green chillies - 2 chopped

Garlic - 2 pods - crushed

Lemon juice - 1-2 table spoons (adjust)

Salt - as per taste (you can reduce the salt amount, since lemon flavour is already there)

For tadka or popu - Cumin seeds, mustard seeds, urad dal - 1/2 tsp each, curry leaves -10, dried red chillies - 2, oil - 2 tsp

Procedure:

1. In a pressure cooker take the roasted moong dal, onion slices, green chillies and crushed garlic.

2. Add 2 cups of water and cook until 3 whistles. When all the pressure is gone, open the cooker, mash tha dal and mix well.
3. Again turn on the flame and place the cooker. Add 1-1.5 cups of water.
4. When the rasam starts boiling add the salt and lemon juice. Turn off the flame.
5. Do the popu seperately in a small pan and add it to the moong dal rasam.





Serve hot with rice and any dry item.