Lunch menu 26 - South Indian lunch combo

This week’s menu is no fancy meal, but an usual and simple south Indian menu. I often pick healthy vegetables like vazhaipoo (banana-flower), vazhaithandu (banana-stem), murunga keerai (drumstick leaves) etc.; when ever I see it fresh in the shops. When we were kids, healthy vegetables are often made by our mom / MIL, but here, we have to take care of ourselves and more in ours- ladies hands. So I never miss to buy these and cook for the family. I used to hate eating these when I was kid and have told gazillion times I would never ever buy these things when I cook. But things do change. Now a days, when I cook these, I too love it. And coming to vazhaipoo, I do agree its time consuming process. But sure worth to do this once in a month for its health benefits. So I will sit in front of the TV and watch my favourite show/ songs and do this work to avoid boredom. Mostly in weekends so that the family is sitting near by . Aj is not a big fan of this, but he eats without complaining when I mix with rice and give. This lunch menu has beetroot poriyal, chow chow sambar and vazhai poo poriyal.
Here is how I prepared  this lunch:

1. First thing was to clean vazhaipoo. It may take 45 mins or upto an hour for cleaning and chopping it. Cleaned and kept it soaked in buttermilk mixed water. (You can use water with a lemon squeezed to it too.
2. Then pressure cooked rice and dal in separate containers, in between which I cut chow chow for sambar and let it get cooked in another stove. Soak tamarind for sambar.
3. Boil/ steam vazhaipoo too for the poriyal. Use less water if you are boiling to prevent loss of nutrients.
4. Mean while I chopped beetroot for poriyal and cooked it once the vazhipoo is done. Chopped onion for same and one for sambar in between. Cut one tomato for sambar and kept ready curry leaves for all these.
5. Grate coconut and extract tamarind juice. Now on to the final stove work. First temper and fry for sambar and add it to the cooked chow chow along with tamarind juice and other ingredients needed and let the sambar boil.
6. Next vazhaipoo poriyal and lastly beetroot poriyal. Add dal to sambar and finish that too. Lunch is ready!

Check out the links for the respective recipes :

1. Beetroot poriyal recipe
2. Vazhaipoo poriyal recipe
3. Chow chow sambar (Basic sambar recipe)

You may be also interested in other sambar recipes – keerai sambar recipe, mango sambar recipe,arachuvitta samabr recipe.

Other curry recipes please browse here.
Have a Happy Weekend!

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