Oats Veggie Kurma

I was asked to avoid coconut for some months by my doctor. Cooking without coconut in a South Indian cuisine? Ohh… hows that possible? Thanks to the cookery show where the dietician made an oats egg kurma for people who have cholesterol problems. I tried my version with veggies…and wow…I dint miss coconut in the gravy. It was as tasty as a gravy with coconut.

Ingredients:
Oil/butter 2 tsp
Cloves – 2
Cinnamon – 1 inch stick
Bayleaf – 1
Cardamom - 2
Onion - 1 medium sized, chopped
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Tomato - 1 medium sized, chopped
Veggie diced 1 cup (carrot, beans, potato, beat root, cauliflower, peas)
Green chillies – 2
Coriander Powder – 1 tsp
Chilli Powder – ½ tsp
Turmeric Powder – ¼ tsp

To grind:
Oats - 2 tsp
Fried poppy seeds – ½ tsp
Fried gram (pottukadalai) – 1/2 tsp
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

Fresh Coriander – 2 tsp finely chopped.
Salt to taste

Method:
Heat oil/butter in a cooker or kadai, add the ingredients one by one and saute until the oil slightly separates. Add 1 cup of water and little salt, cook till two whistles.

Meanwhile, grind the ingredients into a coarse powder and keep ready. After the steam is released, bring to a boil and add the ground mixture and adjust salt as per taste. After adding oats the kurma will become thicker, adjust as per your choice by adding water.

If cooking in a kadai add 1-1/2 cups of water and cook in slow fire for 15 mins closed. After the veggies are cooked, add the ground ingredients and add salt, and adjust consistency by adding water accordingly.

Serve hot with any indian bread.

My kurma was red, as I added the beets, if you want it to be multicolored avoid it. Add a pinch of sugar while sautéing the veggies to maintain the color.