Amaranth leaves, chickpea lentil and coconut stir fry

 Amaranth leaves from the Amaranth plant is called cheera in Malayalam. Apart from the green variety, there are red and purple leafy ones too. This leafy vegetable was gathered from our kitchen garden and here's the recipe for Mom's superfood of cheera dal thoran. She used split chickpea lentil, a yellow lentil also called channa dal or bengal gram.

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The constituents...

Split chickpea lentil (channa dal) - 1/4 cup

Amaranth leaves (cheera) - a bunch

For the grind,

Coconut, grated - 1/2 cup

Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp

Turmeric powder - a tad

Chili powder - 1/4 tsp

Shallots - 3

Salt - 1/4 tsp

For the tempering,

Rice bran oil - 2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Curry leaf - a sprig

Raw rice - 1/4 tsp

Wash the leaves well and chop into small pieces. Boil the dal with water and a smidge of salt until it is cooked wholly.

Add in the melange of coconut, cumin seeds, turmeric powder, chili powder, salt and shallots in a blender jar and grind for 2 seconds. Keep aside.

Heat a deep-bottomed pan and dribble oil. Throw in mustard seeds, curry leaves and raw rice. When the mustard starts crackling, cast in the chopped leaves. Stir and cover with a lid so that it cooks in the steam. After a few minutes, add in the cooked lentils and merge. Prepare a well in the center of the leaves and lentil amalgam by pushing most of it to the sides of the pan. Add in the coconut potpourri in the middle and cover with the  leaves-lentil mixture pushed to the side earlier. The coconut mishmash will cook in the steam produced as the leaves-lentil fuse dry up. Stir after a few minutes to unify everything. Set out the thoran along with red rice. Whoop it up!