BASSARU AND PALYA/VANCHINA CHARU KOORA/KEERAI PARAPPU RASAM PORIYAL

Bassaru palya/ vanchina charu koora literally means rasam that is made using the stock that is separated from the cooked dal and veggies/greens (soppu). Bassaru and palya is always prepared together - stock used for rasam and greens used for curry. In Rayalaseema (Andhra) and Southern Karnataka this preparation is very popular. This is very nutritious and easy to prepare and very tasty since it combines the aroma of various greens.
Apart from greens and pigeon pea lentil, various vegetables such as beans, cabbage and grams such as horse gram, green gram may also be used.
Posted here is bassaru prepared using three types of greens - dil and two variants of amaranth (dantina soppu, sabbasige soppu and harive soppu).

• Ease - Elaborate
• Preparation time - 30 minutes
• Cooking time - 45 minutes

Ingredients

• Dil (sabbasige soppu) - 1 bunch 
• Amaranth (dantina soppu) - 1 bunch 
• Amaranth (Harive soppu) - 1 bunch 
• Tur dal ( pigeon pea lentil) - 1 cup 
• Turmeric powder - 2 generous pinches 
• Oil - 2 spoons 
• Grated coconut - 1 cup 
• Onions - 2 
• Tomatoes - 2 
• Coriander - 4-5 sprigs 
• Curry leaves - 4 -5 sprigs 
• Red chillies - 3 
• Rasam powder - 3 spoons* (pl. see rasam powder post) 
• Urad dal - 1 spoon 
• Channa dal - 1 spoon 
• Mustard - 1 spoon 
• Cumin - 1 spoon 
• Corriander seeds - 1 spoon 
• Asafoetida - 2-3 pinches 

Method
Step 1
Clean, wash and chop greens in small bits (donot chop too finely)
Cook Tur dal with turmeric and 1/2 spoon of oil in a pan with enough water
When dal is 3/4 cooked add chopped greens and cook further .
Add coconut and cook further
Using a strainer separate stock from cooked dal and greens and keep aside.

Step 2
Preparation of rasam

                                               ingredients for rasam

• Collect the stock in a pan add finely chopped tomatoes and boil, let tomatoes get cooked 
• Add salt to taste 
• Add a small piece of jaggery (optional) 
• Grind onions, cumin seeds, coriander seeds along with rasam powder and 3 - 4 spoons of cooked dal and greens to a smooth paste and add it to the boiling stock with stirring. 
• Add seasoning - heat oil in a small wok/kadai, add mustard, let it crackle, add curry leaves and finely chopped coriander 
• Rasam is ready to serve 

                                                boiling hot rasam

Step 3
Preparation of palya

• Heat 2 spoons of oil in a wok, add mustard let it crackle 
• Add channa dal and fry till light pink 
• Add urad dal and fry till golden 
• Add broken red chillies and curry leaves, add chopped onions and fry till onions are translucent 
• Add the cooked dal and greens, salt to taste, mix throughly and simmer for two minutes. 
• Curry is ready to serve. 

                                         

Serving

• As a practice bassaru and palya are served together with hot steamed rasam with ghee and some crunchies like happalam/ sandige/ balaka menasina kai 
• This rasam can be consumed as soup 
• Palya tastes great with Indian flat bread - chapathi/roti. 

Tips

• For satvik cooking onions may be eliminated and same procedure followed for both bassaru and palya 
• Tomatoes may be replaced by tamarind extract - soak a small lemon sized tamarind and use the extract 
• 2-3 cloves of garlic may be added while making rasam masala paste if you like garlic 

Please post your valuable comments/ feed back . Your comments and suggestions will boost my spirits and improved postings. Thank you