Lentil Soup / Pappu Chaaru

Pappu Chaaru

Spelling the name itself makes me hungry. For infants, after we start rice, this will be the first dish (atleast for me and my kids) we serve them, this dish has such an important place in every house. It is given to kids and old people to provide them with protein from lentils and is easy to  digest. It is not spicy, yet tasty and healthy. This is a staple recipe in every Andhra house. We can find Samabr in restaurants, but you cannot find this delicious Pappu Chaaru in restaurants.

As a child I am very fussy eater (now, I grew out of it and I talk a lot about food), but this is one of the dish I will not fuss at all. I still remember the aroma of pappu chaaru spreading out of the kitchen that makes every one very hungry. My mom especially uses a little bit of ghee for talimpu / tampering and the aroma of garlic sauteing in ghee with cumin and curry leaves just makes both me and my brother very hungry. My brother especially loves this so much he likes to have it in at least one of his meal.

I remember one time my brother came to visit me, he wanted to have pappu charru. I made a big pot of pappu charru with omelets as a side, my husband and brother had that pot in the middle with omelets on their side and they indulged in enjoying the food so much…I am almost in tears (I am very emotional, it’s a sign of happiness for me. You can imagine telugu movies, right…).

My family loves those small onions that gives a nice flavor when boiled with spices and tamarind. Both my kids love this pappu chaaru.

Pappu Charru

For some people there is slight confusion between Pappu chaarru and Sambar .

Pappu chaaru – uses only green chilies and no need of any powders (Sambar powder)

Samabr – Combination of green chilies, red chilies, chili powder with a special powder made from ( dal, coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds and cumin)

When served this with hot rice and freshly melted ghee — ummmm heavenly.

I always make this in large quantity so that we can enjoy the following day with idli/dosa.

This is a very basic dish and a one pot meal. Easy to digest.

Pappu Chaaru Ingredients

Ingredients for Pappu Chaaru

• 1 Cup Toor dal
• 5 small Onions / Shallots
• 7 Green Chilies (adjust the amount according to your taste)
• 2 medium Tomatoes chopped
• 2 medium Carrots chopped lengthwise
• 6 Drumsticks (Munaga kaaya) ( I used frozen Drum sticks)
• lemon size tamarind
• 1 tsp each of mustard seeds and Cumin
• 2 garlic cloves
• ¼ tsp Turmeric (Pasupu)
• Pinch of Asafeotida (Hing)
• 10 Curry leaves
• Handful of Cilantro (coriander ) leaves

Directions-

1. In a Pressure cooker, wash dal and boil it with water (1:2) for 3 whistles. Mean while, add little water to tamarind, microwave it for 45 sec’s and extract the juice.
2. When the pressure is cooled, mash dal with hand blender or a masher.
3. To this mashed Dal, add all the veggies with tamarind extract. Add salt, green chillies, turmeric, little bit of cilantro and few curry leaves.
4. Cover the pressure cooker and let it cook on medium flame for 1 whistle.
5. Let the pressure cool off.
6. Heat a small pan with 1 tbsp oil and ½ tbsp ghee. Add crushed Garlic and let it sauté. Add mustard seeds, when they crack, add Cumin,  Asafeotida, curry leaves and when they are nicely cooked.
7. Add this Talimpu (Tampering) to Pappu Charru. Adjust the taste if needed. Let it boil till you get the desired consistency. ( this will not be thick as sambar, since sambar has powder that makes it thick)
8. Turn off the stove and top it off with cilantro.

Server hot with rice and ghee. Kids will love it.

Pappu Chaaru