Beetroot Palya(Upkari)
Beetroots (or usually called beets) are a powerhouse of nutrients that help improve health in many ways. They lower blood pressure, boost stamina, fight inflammation and detox the body. Not just the beets but the green leafy tops too have lot of essential nutrients in them like vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron. Beets are very widely used in South Indian cuisine in sambars, stirfry, cutlets, pachadi and even deserts.
Here is a simple stir-fry with beets very common in south India. Stir fries are usually called thoran in kerala, poriyal in tamil, kannadigas call it palya and in konkani called as upkari. So though the names are different it just a simple preparation using coconut oil, some basic South Indian spices & garnished with lots of fresh grated coconut.
The beets are cut into fairly small pieces and cooked with little water with some basic ingredients like curry leaves, mustard seeds, udad/chana dal, red chillies, fenugreek and mustard seeds. The stir fry is not very spicy and feels more like a salad but with the flavouring of coconut and curry leaves. The cut red chillies give a slight heat which goes perfectly well with rice & sambar (or rasam or even curd rice)
Pretty much any vegetable stir fry can be done using this style with slight variations in the ingredients. Carrots & peas, beans, cabbage, potato and cauliflower are few of the many variations of south Indian stir fries - some are garlic/onion stir fried vegetables, some use only red chillies, some with only green chillies, some don't have curry leaves but the final stir fry will always be garnished with lots of fresh coconut which give it a unique flavour. If you do not like the flavour of coconut use any vegetable oil and do not garnish at the end. Remember to never replace the fresh grated coconut with desiccated coconut. It will not give the authentic sweet coconut flavour.
What you'll need :
2 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp udad dal
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 red chillies (cut into inch sized pieces)
1/2 tsp asafoetida, fenugreek powder (you can use fenugreeks seeds if you don't have powder)
3 tbsp fresh grated coconut
1 tsp fresh coriander leaves (optional)
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp sugar (only if the beetroots are not sweet)
How to:
Steam the beetroots to just a whistle in pressure cooker. Peel and cube and keep aside. The beets should be al-dente and not cooked completely. I usually skip this step. Instead I peel the outer peel using a potato peeler and cut into small cubes. This way my stir-fry will not be mushy and the beets are crisp.
In a sauté pan, add coconut oil. Once it starts smoking, add the mustard seeds, udad dal and red chillies. Cover it immediately with a lid, or else they sputter all over the sides and the oil droplets may hurt your skin.
Add the cubed beetroots, salt, water and allow to cook for around 10 minutes. If the beets are not sweet, add a pinch of sugar. Once the beets are cooked, add the asafoetida and fenugreek powder, half of the grated coconut and turn of the heat immediately. Remove from heat and garnish with more coconut and coriander leaves.
