Vazhai Poo Usili | Banana Flower /Banana Blossom Usili

Traditional Tamil Brahmin Recipe!

Paruppu Usili is the crumbled soft dal which is combined with vegetables to make very delicious Poriyal variety or dry curry. The most common vegetables used for Usili are Banana Flower, Beans and Cluster Beans.  Vazhai Poo Usili is one of the traditional recipe in Tamil Brahmin Kitchen. For any auspicious occasions like marriages, we or the caterers always include beans or cluster beans paruppu usili as part of their menu.

To prepare Vazhaipoo for cooking is time consuming and hence the current generation do not prefer to cook it very often even though it is very cheap, healthy and tastier flower for cooking.  But this is worth the effort. This Usili goes very well with Mor Kuzhambu, Poricha Kuzhambu or even Vatha Kuzhambu

There are 2 ways to make this Usili:

1. Dals are soaked overnight or atleast for 2 hours and ground to paste with red chili and the paste is then crumbled with little oil and added to the steam cooked beans. I have given here this way of making Usili
2. Soaked dal is ground to fine paste and make small dumplings out of the paste. Steam cook the dumplings and then crumble it with your hand. We can then mix that crumbled dal mixture to the cooked vegetable.

You may also want to try:

• Beans Usili
• Radish Greens Paruppu Usili
• Kothavarangai (Cluster Beans) Paruppu Usili
• Vatha Kuzhambu
• Kalyana Rasam

Recipe card to make Vazhi Poo Usili

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Vazhai Poo Usuli | Banana Flower Usili

Course: Poriyal

Cuisine: Indian, Tamil Brahmin, Tamilnadu

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Soaking Time: 4 hours

Total Time: 40 minutes

Servings: 5 people

Calories: 187kcal

Author: Sowmya Venkatachalam

Paruppu Usili is the crumbled soft dal which is combined with vegetables to make very delicious Poriyal variety or dry curry. The most common vegetables used for Usili are Banana Flower, Beans and Cluster Beans. This recipe is made using Vazhaipoo (Banana flower). It goes very well with Mor Kuzhambu or Vatha Kuzhambu.

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 Vazhai poo(Banana flower) Medium Size
• ▢ 1 tsp Salt Adjust As Needed
• ▢ 1 Pinch Turmeric Powder

For Grinding

• ▢ ¼ Cup Toor Dal (Pigeon pea)
• ▢ ¼ Cup Split Bengal Gram (Channa Dal / Kadalaparuppu)
• ▢ a Pinch Asafoetida (Asafetida / Hing)
• ▢ 1/2 tsp Salt
• ▢ 2 Red Chili

For Tempering

• ▢ 1 tsp Oil
• ▢ 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
• ▢ 1 tsp Urad Dal

Instructions 

Preparing Banana Flower for cooking:

• ▢
  The tricky part is to remove the stamen which is nothing but a hard pink layer found in each florets. This stamen never gets cooked and hence we need to remove the same from the florets. You can easily remove the stamen from the top layers of the florets as the stamen is visible. But once you approach the inner layers, the florets are covered and hence removal of the stamen is little bit difficult. Here is the tip.. you can hold the bunch of florets on your left hand and rub the face of the florets on your right hand. This will open up the florets and you can remove the stamen easily. You might notice that the color of the bract was in dark pink color when you start the removal of the stamen and once you approach the inner portion the color of the bract changes from dark pink color to the yellow and finally end up with small white bulb. You can stop removing the stamen at this point as the florets in the inner portion will be more tender. You can cut the flower directly without removing the bracts or stamen.
  
• ▢
  Chop the florets and put them in the butter milk mixed with water as this will keep the color of the florets as white. Otherwise, this become black in color.Here we are going to make Vazhai Poo Paruppu Usuli. It is dhal crumbles on the vegetable/flower. This dhal crumbles gives a wonderful flavor to this curry.
  

Steps for Cooking

• ▢
  As explained above, we are already ready with our finely chopped Banana flower which we have soaked it in buttermilk +water. Squeeze the chopped banana flower out of the buttermilk and add it to a vessel and pressure cook it with salt. Allow for 2 whistles. We can also directly cook this in pan but it will take more time to cook.
  
• ▢
  Soak the Dal’s in water over night or in hot boiling water for at least 2 hours. Rinse the Dal’s and strain the water and grind it in mixer once along with red chilli, hing and salt without adding water
  
• ▢
  The ground mixture should be coarse. Heat the oil in the pan, and add the ground paste and keep the flame in low
  
• ▢
  Allow the ground paste to cook in oil and it will crumble down into smaller pieces. In a separate pan, heat some oil and add mustard seeds when the oil is hot.
  
• ▢
  When the mustard seeds starts to sputter, add the urdhal and fry till it turns into golden brown color. To this add cooked Vazhai Poo (Banana Flower), then add crumbled Dal mixture and mix it well
  
• ▢
  Mix the crumbled dal with the cooked banana flower and keep in medium flame for 5 minutes. Then remove the yummy usili from flame. 
  
• ▢
  The mouth-watering Vazhai Poo(Banana Flower) paruppu usuli is ready to serve. You can also directly mix the Vazhai Poo Paruppu Usuli with the white rice and a spoon of ghee and serve.
  

Video

Notes

1. Soaking dal overnight makes the Paruppu usili to be soft. If we forget to soak overnight, at least soak in hot water for 2 hours
2. We can steam cook the ground dal and then crumble the cooked dal 
3. Vazhaipoo releases lots of water, so just sprinkle very little water while cooking or else the vazhaipoo becomes so damp.

Nutritional Info

Nutrition Facts

Vazhai Poo Usuli | Banana Flower Usili

Amount Per Serving (1 Cup)

Calories 187 Calories from Fat 54

% Daily Value*

Fat 6g9%

Carbohydrates 2g1%

Fiber 6g25%

Protein 9g18%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Preparing Banana Flower for cooking:

The tricky part is to remove the stamen which is nothing but a hard pink layer found in each florets. This stamen never gets cooked and hence we need to remove the same from the florets. You can easily remove the stamen from the top layers of the florets as the stamen is visible. But once you approach the inner layers, the florets are covered and hence removal of the stamen is little bit difficult.

Here is the tip.. you can hold the bunch of florets on your left hand and rub the face of the florets on your right hand. This will open up the florets and you can remove the stamen easily. We might notice that the color of the bract was in dark pink color when you start the removal of the stamen and once you approach the inner portion the color of the bract changes from dark pink color to the yellow and finally end up with small white bulb. You can stop removing the stamen at this point as the florets in the inner portion will be more tender. We can cut the flower directly without removing the bracts or stamen.

Chop the florets and put them in the butter milk mixed with water as this will keep the color of the florets as white. Otherwise, this become black in color.Here we are going to make Vazhai Poo Paruppu Usuli. It is dhal crumbles on the vegetable/flower. This dhal crumbles gives a wonderful flavor to this curry.

Let’s start the cooking now:

1. • As explained above, we are already ready with our finely chopped Banana flower which we have soaked it in buttermilk +water. Squeeze the chopped banana flower out of the buttermilk and add it to a vessel and pressure cook it with salt. Allow for 2 whistles or steam cook for 10 mins. We can also directly cook this in pan but it will take more time to cook.
   • Soak the Dal’s in water over night or in hot boiling water for at least 2 hours. Rinse the Dal’s and strain the water and grind it in mixer once along with red chilli, hing and salt without adding water

1. • The ground mixture should be coarse. Heat the oil in the pan, and add the ground paste and keep the flame in low

1. • Allow the ground paste to cook in oil and it will crumble down into smaller pieces. In a separate pan, heat some oil and add mustard seeds when the oil is hot.

1. • When the mustard seeds starts to sputter, add the urdhal and fry till it turns into golden brown color. To this add cooked Vazhai Poo (Banana Flower), then add crumbled Dal mixture and mix it well

1. • Mix the crumbled dal with the cooked banana flower and keep in medium flame for 5 minutes. Then remove the yummy usili from flame.

1. • The mouth-watering Vazhai Poo(Banana Flower) paruppu usuli is ready to serve. You can also directly mix the Vazhai Poo Paruppu Usuli with the white rice and a spoon of ghee and serve.

Vazhai Poo Usuli (Banana Flower /Banana Blossom) Usuli

Sowmya Venkatachalam

IT Engineer turned full time Food Blogger. I ♡ FOOD. I also love food blogging. Did you make a recipe? Tag @Subbusktichen on Instagram. I WANNA SEE!