Kadamba Sundal ~ A protein packed Salad!

Published: Jan 15, 2009 · Modified: Sep 23, 2020 by Srivalli · 37 Comments

Growing up our family was never a salad family. For that matter, even my in-laws are not. Good healthy food always meant Biryani, Malai Koftas, etc. at home. There was never a question of anybody wanting to diet or skipping meals because one meal was rich! If I am to remember well, none in my vicinity were conscious of eating Salads as a way to healthy meals! But turn around yourself, you hear people talking about salad. I really wonder why. Is it the latest fad! In fact, I don't know what a salad is called in Telugu. In Tamil, of course, we use an equivalent term 'Sundal' to mean Salad, but sundal mostly denotes Chickpea Sundal that is made during the Navaratri.

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At home when you are referring to salad, it mostly meant Onions, Fresh Cucumber, Carrot, and Tomatoes. Well, these may not actually cover the entire range, you could say, you are right! But for us, it meant only these. Just think about it. When one has to cook Biryanis followed with all those items that make a full course of the meal and laid a spread for the guests, these salads would be preferred? Or for that matter we would go to the extent of spending more time in prepping the vegetables, only to be stored away for later usage. Believe me, that's what happened the few times I spent hours making a beautiful salad preparation, only to store it away for the next day's cooking. Nobody touched it! Of course, everybody appreciated and commended my artistic hand in making a salad look so beautiful. That my friend is the sad story of a salad that never got prepared much on a high scale for a party.

When one talks about salad, one cannot but think about dressing. Now that becomes even tougher! I have a big book with salad recipes and most talk about dressing which never appeals to my taste! And when it refers to Indian salads, they are invariably douched with lemon! Gosh, I somehow can not palate a fresh lemon juice these days. I find that very shocking as I remember munching on lemon wedges when I was in my teens. Does one's taste preference change so much? Recently when our office cook wanted to make sprouted salads, my colleague suggested lemon be squeezed on top finally. I strongly protested. Knowing my south Indian preference, I suggested they don't strangle the poor lemon. People can do it themselves if they want, I said. Being over-enthusiastic the cook had many a lemon chopped into wedges and served. The big bowl of salads disappeared in no time, sadly the lemon wedges had to be stored away!

Until I find a dressing that's suitable to my palate, let me just do this the warm way with just seasoning with basic ingredients!

Kadambam means an assortment of flowers tied together in flower terminology. And this Kadamba Sundal is made with an assortment of lentils, legumes, and nuts. The flovour each bean gives is exquisite! I don't think you have a distinct recipe for this Sundal, you can just about do a mix and match according to your taste!

Ingredients Needed:

Kabuli Channa /Chickpea - 1/2 cup
Brown Channa - 1/2 cup
Dried Peas, Mochai, Peanuts, Moong dal, Black eyed pea - fistful
Blanced Almonds - 5

Seasonings

Mustard seeds, Urad dal - 1 tsp
Channa dal - 1/2 tsp
Green Chilis - 1
Red Chilis - 2
Curry leaves - 5 - 6
Coriander leaves for garnish
Oil - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Method to prepare:

Since the cooking time is different for each lentil, pressure cook each of them separately. Let it drain. Chop the blanched almonds, keep aside.

Heat a pan with oil, season it with mustard seeds, channa dal, urad dal, chopped green chilies and red chilies. Saute for 2 mins.

Then add the drained legumes to the pan and season it with salt. Simmer for 2 mins and remove.

We went to the open festival, do check out the details!

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