Living in a small town, I don’t have access to a lot of Indian veggies. But that is kind of good actually, once I get over my initial reaction of – ” Oh my god! The same vegetables again this week!” I have to genuinely try to cook veggies differently to stop myself from getting bored of the same food 😀 Last week that repeat vegetable was zucchini – hence this recipe is up on the blog!
This is a brand new recipe – combining channa with zucchini. Incidentally in a lot of south indian veggie preparations I do try this out – tindora with channa or beans with channa. But I had never tried this combination and it actually works really well!
I just pan-cooked zucchini for a few minutes so that it is still crunchy. Overcooking can definitely make the dish very watery and taste bland. So the soft channa actually contrasts the crunch from the zucchini! I think both channa and zucchini generally taste better when they are spiced up really well – I have used a combination of lentiles, peanuts, green chillies and ground up spices to make this dish work well! Feel free to experiment with the seasonings 🙂
Also, if this is the first time you are on my blog, do check out the other zucchini recipes as well: Zucchini Aloo Jeera, Brown Lentils and Zucchini Stew, Zucchini and Cucumber Stir Fry, and Zucchini Yogurt Dip.
Zucchini Channa Poriyal/Palya/Zubzi
- 3 large zucchinis
- 1 can of chickpeas ((if you are using dried channa, refer to notes for details))
- 1 green chilli
- 1 tbsp channa dal
- 1 tbsp urad dal
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
- 2 tsp oil
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- a pinch of hing
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Chop the zucchini into bite sized pieces. Don’t chop them too small as then there is a high chance of the zucchini getting overcooked.
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Heat oil in a less deep saucepan. (this way all the zucchini pieces will be in touch with the surface of the pan and cook faster/retain crunch better)
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Add the peanuts, channa dal and ural dal to the oil and let it turn a golden brown. Add the cumin seeds, chopped green chilli, and hing to this as well.
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Now add the chopped zucchini to this and sprinkle some salt and water. Without closing the lid of the pan, let the veggies cook on medium high heat for 8-10 minutes. Be careful to check on this frequently so as to not over cook the zucchini.
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Then drain the chickpeas from the can and add it to the cooked zucchini. Add turmeric and chilli powder and mix well
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Cook the poriyal for 4-5 minutes just to heat up the channa. Serve hot with rice or chapathi!
If you are using dried channa, soak about 1/3 cup of channa overnight. Pressure cook with 1 cup water and some salt for 3-4 whistles. Then drain the cooked channa and add it to the zucchini in step 5.
