Tovve | Bele saru | Simple Dal Recipe

Tovve refers to Dal preparation without adding any saaru/rasam powder. It must be the easiest and quickest dal recipe and tastes wonderful. We need only a handful of ingredients to prepare this comfort food. 

Nothing can replace mother's love and food :-) It reminds me of amma and home sweet home. One of my favorites from my mother's everyday recipes. This week I plan to share some of the dishes that I learnt from my mother's kitchen.

 

Here is the stepwise instruction to make Togaribele Tovve.

Ingredients:

Togaribele / Toor dal: 1 cup

Ghee/coconut oil: 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds: 1 tsp

Asafoetida/hing: 1/4 tsp

Green chillies : 5-6

Curry leaves : 1 sprig

Ginger: 2 inches

Turmeric : 1/2 tsp

Tamarind : a marble size.

Salt to taste

Chopped Coriander leaves: 2 tbsp

Method: 

1. Wash and soak dal in enough water for 15 minutes and pressure cook with a pinch of turmeric and few drops of oil.

2. Slit green chillies and finely chop the ginger. Soak tamarind in warm water and extract juice and keep aside

3. Heat oil/ghee in a pot and add mustard seeds, when it splutters add asafoetida and stir.

4. Add curry leaves, ginger and green chillies and sauté until raw smell of ginger disappears.

5. Mix in turmeric powder and add tamarind juice and bring to boil

6. Lightly mash the cooked dal and add to the tempering, add salt and boil for 4-5 minutes.

7. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice, ghee, pickle and happala (papad)

Notes:
1. Another variation of Tovve is to add onion and tomato to the tempering. Once the ginger is sauteed you can add finely chopped onion and fry until it's golden brown in color and then add tomatoes and continue with step 5. Adjust the amount of tamarind if you are adding tomatoes. 

2. Consistency of Tovve is not too thick or very watery. It's in between. It goes well with idli also. Some restaurants in Udupi serve this delicious combination of Idli-Tovve.