Tamarind rice with a twist. Instead of using tamarind, we are going to use sorrel leaves. Sorrel Leaves has a natural tanginess. Gongura is a plant grown for its edible leaves in India. Gongura comes in 2 varieties green stemmed leaf and red stemmed leaf. The red stemmed leaves are more sour than the green ones. This Gongura Pulihora will make a wonderful kid's Lunch Box Dish. We can prepare it quickly within minutes and it will be so delicious.

For the traditional South Indian Puliyodarai , the first step is to soak the tamarind and extract the juice. Then we need to prepare the spice powder and then we do the tempering followed by boiling tamarind along with the spice powder we prepared. Finally when the puliyodarai becomes semi-thick with the oil oozing out, then our Puliyodarai will be ready. This can be stored for many days in an air-tight container.

For this Gongura Puliyodarai, we don't need more spices. We just need to cook the gongura leaves with mustard, fenugreek seeds and red chili and grind it to a coarse paste. Finally we need to prepare tempering and add the tempering, gongura paste to the cooked fluffy rice and mix gently.We need to remember that red sorrel leaves are more sour than the green ones and hence we need to adjust the spice level accordingly.

For travel, we can first make a paste of gongura leaves as i have mentioned above and add the paste to the tempering and cook again till oil oozes out and we can take that thokku for our travel in an air-tight container.

Other Tamarind Rice varieties

Recipe Card for Gongura Pulihora Recipe:

INSTRUCTIONS WITH STEP BY STEP PICTURES:

PREPARING COOKED RICE

Take the cooked rice and spread it in a plate. Allow it to cool down completely and then add turmeric powder, oil, salt, curry leaves and give a gently mix without mushing the rice.

COOKING GONGURA RICE

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and allow it to sputter. Then add fenugreek seeds and sauté till it turns light red color.

Then add the leaves and sauté the leaves till it becomes tender and soft. It will take 6-8 minutes for the leaves to become soft.

GRINDING PROCESS

Allow the cooked leaves to cool down. Then take it to the mixer jar and grind it to a coarse paste.

TEMPERING PROCESS

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard and cumin seeds and allow it to sputter. Then add the split urad dal and bengal gram along with roasted peanuts and fry till dal turns golden brown.