Every year I look forward to May –
planting season in Colorado. The weather
starts warming up, kids start wearing shorts and t-shirts (even thought
temperatures are sometimes in the 40s to 50s), nights are no longer below
freezing, and plants and trees begin to come back to life.
A couple of times in the past, I
have been so excited about having several warm weather days in a row, and
planted my vegetable garden by the first week in May. Just when the tomato plants begin to look
healthy and my peppers show signs of flowering, a freak snowstorm (Colorado is
famous for these) hits and all my plants die!
I have since learned my lesson and no matter how tempting it is to get
started, I wait till Memorial Day weekend to start my vegetable patch.
This year, along with my regular
plants like tomatoes, peppers, chilies, zucchini, squash, and eggplant, I also
planted different varieties of kale. We
have had such a moist spring that my kale plants have thrived.
I have only had kale in salads and
wanted to try something different. So I
decided to make a dry curry with kale. It is really simple to make and tastes
great. You can serve it with rotis or
with rice.
Here is what you need:
- ½ cup split moong dal, soaked in water for about ½ hour and drained
- 2 – 3 tsp. oil
- ½ tsp. mustard seeds
- ½ tsp. split urad dal
- 2 red chilies
- few curry leaves
- 2 cups packed, assorted kale leaves, washed and chopped
- ¼ tsp. turmeric powder
- salt to taste
Here is how I made it:
- Heat oil in a kadai/pan. Add mustard seeds. When they sputter, add the urad dal and red chilies.
- When the red chilies change color, add the soaked moong dal and chopped kale. Mix well.
- Add turmeric powder and salt. Sprinkle a little bit of water (maybe ½ cup) cover and cook for about 7 – 8 minutes.
- Check to make sure that the kale and moong dal are cooked well. Kale takes a little longer than spinach to cook. So you make have to cook this for about 10 minutes or so, depending on how tender the leaves are.
- Turn off the heat. You can add shredded coconut at this point if you like. I did not.
Serve with rotis or rice.
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