Carrot Kootu recipe – South Indian style carrot and lentils curry. Carrots and lentils make for a delicious combination in this simple and easy coconut based recipe.
Kootu is one of my favorite dishes as it a healthy blend of vegetables and lentils.
I have never prepared any dal with carrots and this is the first time that I tried kootu with carrots and totally loved it.
This has become one of my favorite kootu recipes after drumstick kootu. In this recipe, carrots turn out soft as we are pressure cooking them along with dal. The cooked carrots and lentils are then left to simmer with coconut till they are well blended. This carrot kootu goes well with rice or rotis. It can be served as a side dish for rice or you can even have it with steamed rice with a generous dollop of ghee to enhance its taste.
Carrots being rich in dietary fiber and a great source of vitamin A, it is a vegetable that is great to be included in our diets. With toor dal having high protein content, the combination of carrots and toor dal / arhar dal is healthy.
For other kootu recipes do check out
Lets see the recipe for simple and easy carrot kootu.
How to make Carrot Kootu step by step
- Soak toor dal in enough water for 30 mins and then drain the water from the soaked dal.
- Chop onion, garlic and tomatoes. Pressure cook the dal and vegetables and lightly mash the dal once it is cooked.
- In a pan, add oil and add the seasoning ingredients. Then add the cooked dal and vegetables mixture and mix.
- Add the ground coconut paste and salt and mix well.
- Add water and let the gravy simmer for 4-5 minutes and remove from heat. Carrot kootu is ready to be served.
Carrot Kootu recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 1/3 cup toor dal ( split pigeon pea / thuvaram paruppu )
- 1 onion small
- 1 tomato medium-sized
- 2 large garlic cloves
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 5 tbsp grated coconut
- 1-2 green chillies
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp split urad dal (without skin)
- A few curry leaves
- 1 tsp oil
Instructions
- Wash toor dal and soak the dal in enough water for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile peel the skin of carrots and chop them into small cubes. Also, finely chop onions, garlic and tomatoes.
- Grind the grated coconut along with chopped green chillies to a fine paste by adding little water and set this aside.
- Drain the soaked water from dal. Pressure cook the soaked dal along with chopped onions, garlic, tomatoes, carrots and turmeric powder with 1 cup water for 2 whistles on a medium flame.
- Once the pressure gets released from the cooker, remove the lid of the cooker and mash the dal slightly.
- Heat oil in a kadai or pan. Add mustard seeds. When the seeds splutter, add urad dal and curry leaves.
- Once dal turns brown, add the cooked dal-vegetable mixture and mix.
- Add the ground coconut paste and salt and mix well.
- Add 3/4 cup water and let the gravy simmer on low heat for 4-5 minutes.
- Once the gravy thickens to desired consistency, remove from heat.
- Carrot kootu is now ready to be served.
Notes
- The curry will thicken with time. So cook to consistency required.
- Carrot kootu tastes great when served with rice and a dollop of ghee. Add ghee when you are serving to kids. It tastes good when served with rotis / chapathis too.
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