Sprouted Channa Palak Rice / Molakala Chanagala Annam

Sprouted Channa Palak Rice / Molakala Chanagala Annam

I had some sprouted channa lying in my fridge waiting for me to cook them. I initially thought of preparing curry and I had just began that I heard the local green leafy veggie hawker in my street. I found fresh palak with him and I could not resist myself from buying them as they were so fresh. It was then that I planned to prepare something different. Hence I came up with this idea of preparing spinach rice with sprouted channa.

The combination was quite good. It had the nutty flavour from the channa and the flavour of palak was really good. This was served to my kids in their lunch box. I was amazed to see the boxes coming back empty. So this became one of my recipes to keep along with the basic palak rice.

Preparation

Take the sprouted channa in a pressure cooker. Add water and baking soda and cook until 3 whistles or until they become soft.

In the meantime, clean and wash the palak leaves and chop them finely. Keep this aside. Once the pressure subsides, remove the lid and check if the channa are softly cooked. If you press a single channa between your thumb and index fingers, it should be soft and should be pressed easily.

Get your masalas ready.

Heat oil and ghee in a cooker.

Once the oil is hot enough, add broken cashews and the whole garam masalas mentioned under Masala in Ingredients section.

When the cashews are fried until golden colour, add sliced onions and slit green chillies.
Fry for a minute and throw in the ginger garlic paste. Fry until the raw smell of ginger and garlic paste disappears ( for approximately 2-3 minutes ).

Now add in the chopped palak ( spinach ) leaves and saute until the leaves become soft ( aprroximately 3-4 minutes ).

Add the cooked sprouted channa and mix well.

Add the curd. I had some leftover flavored curd rice, hence I added it. You can add plain curd.

Mix everything well and add washed rice. Mix well and fry for a minute or two.

Now add sufficient water for the rice to cook. Remember that palak releases lots of water while cookin, so do not add too much water, else your rice will become so soft almost to a paste consistency. So please add water cautiously.

Add salt and mix well. Cook until 2-3 whistles and let the pressure cool down. Transfer to another wide plate and mix gently with fork. Take care not to break the rice grains. Garnish with coriander leaves and sprinkle few lemon drops and serve hot with any raita of your choice. I did not have the need for any raita. I just served it plain and it was purely awesome.

Ingredients

Sprouted Channa 1 cup
Baking soda 1/4 tsp
Palak 2 bunches
Cashews handful
Oil 2 tbsp.
Ghee 1 tbsp.
Green Chillies 2 slit length wise
Onion 1 finely sliced
Ginger garlic paste 1.5 tsp
Curd 4 tbsp.
Rice
Salt to taste

Masala

Bay Leaf 1
Pepper corns 10
Elaichi 2
Cloves 5
Dalchin 2 1" pieces

Method

1. Pressure cook sprouted channa with baking soda until soft. Keep aside.
2. Clean and wash the palak leaves along with stems if they are tender. Chop finely and keep aside.
3. Heat oil and ghee in the same pressure cooker.
4. Once hot, add broken cashews and whole garam masalas. Fry until the cahsews turn light brown in colour.
5. Add onion and green chillies and saute for a minute.
6. Add ginger garlic paste and saute for 3-4 minutes.
7. Add the chopped palak and mix well. Cook until the leaves turn soft.
8. Add cooked channa and mix well.
9. Put in the curd and mix well.
10. Add washed rice and salt and mix well. Fry for 2-3 minutes.
11. Add sufficient water and cover with the lid with whistle on.
12. Cook until 2 -3 whistles and once the pressure subsides, transfer to a wide plate and mix gently with a fork.
13. Garnish with coriander leaves and sprinkle a few drops of lemon and serve hot.

Notes

• You can add sprouted green peas as well but adding chann gives a nice nutty flavour.
• You can add tomato instead of curd. But I believe that palak and tomatoes are not supposed to be cooked together. Hence I do not add tomatoes in any dish where palak is added.
• You can also garam masala powder to enhance the flavour.