Regular side dish for rice that is made at least once in 10 days. Tamarind and spices spike the earthy flavour of this leafy green and lend it a wonderful taste.

Since leafy greens are among the super-foods with their vitamin, mineral and fiber richness we try to use them at least once a week as this pulusu, pappu, majjiga pulusu, pappu kura, simple kura, Tamil style masiyal or paruppusili.

I learnt this from Ammamma and Kameswari ammamma. The latter liked to add 2 tbsp of chana dal to thotakura while cooking it. When I was young I never liked this and so I was induced to eat it with some sugar. Though I disliked sweets then, sugar somehow ticked for some items. Even now I eat my thotakura pulusu with sugar (naluchukuni).

This pulusu can be made using all thotakuras (Amaranthus, green & red, also araikeerai, sirukeerai in TN) and Bachali kura. Gongura pulusu is quite similar but tamarind is not needed as the leaves are sour in taste.

Many people love adding mustard powder to this called -‘ava pettadam’ which gives a pungent taste to this pulusu. I dont like it much in any recipe.

Ingredients:

• Thotakura(Amaranth) – 1 bunch (Any thotakura – mokka, pedda, koyya)
• Green chilly – 3 to 4
• Tamarind paste – 1tbsp
• Jaggery – small piece (opt)
• Rice flour – 2 tbsp
• Turmeric – a pinch
• Salt

To temper

• Mustard – 1/2 tsp
• Methi – 1/2 tsp
• Hing – 1/4 tsp
• Red chilly – 2
• Chilly powder / kura karam/ ava-methi powder – 1 tsp (opt)

Method:

1. Remove the roots if any of thotakura and wash very well, drain and chop very finely.
2. Add this to a pressure cooker, add half cup of water, salt, turmeric and green chillies (some people may not like to cook chillies in pressure cooker, for me ok.)
3. Cook for 3, 4 whistles in medium-low flame.
4. Once it cools, drain the water into another pot.
5. Nicely mash the cooked thotakura with a ladle (if it is watery, it wont get mashed smoothly) and add it to the pot.
6. Add another cup of water and tamarind pulp and let it boil for few minutes, add jaggery.
7. Mix rice flour in quarter cup water and add it to the pulusu.
8. If adding kura karam or ava-methi powder, we can do it now.
9. Heat a tsp oil in tadka pan, add mustard, methi, red chilly and hing. Just before taking it off, add chilli powder and quickly pour the contents into pulusu. Turn off the stove.
10. Thotakura pulusu is ready to be eaten with mudda pappu, pappu kura, pachi odiyam, kandha vada etc along with hot rice.

Note:

• Ammamma used to wash the kura after chopping it. But I learnt later that doing so washes away nutrients. So after removing root and/or stiff stems (in the case of some varieties), I wash the stems under running water and keep them dipped in a large pot of water with some salt and then take out the kura leaving any sand particles to settle down in the water and once more wash under running water. Then I chop the kura very finely. Finely chopped gets cooked and mashed well making the pulusu combine well and get thicker.
• We can fry some garlic pods in oil and add it to the pulusu when it is boiling
• We can add mustard powder after the pulusu has cooled for ava pettina pulusu. (Adding it when pulusu is hot or even warm makes it taste bitter and acrid)