Safed Vatana Usal (White Peas Curry)

 Maharashtrian cuisine comprises of numerous dishes and one which is found regularly is Usal. Usal is mainly made up of Legumes such as Moong, Black eyed Peas (Chavali), Lima Beans (Vaali chi usal), Matki Usal and Safed Vatana Usal to name a few. Of all the Usal's Safed Vatana Usal is my favorite and I love to have it with Rice and little bit of clarified butter. 

My mom always prepared it for us to go along with her special Jeera Mirchi Daal. It is usually prepared with basic onion and tomatoes as the base gravy. The additional spice that is added to Usal is "Goda Masala". Again another special ingredient which is in abundance in any Maharashtrian kitchen and mostly used in Usal, Amti (Form of Dal) or Masale Bhat. Amalgamation of the spices and various ingredients makes every Usal special and best thing to have during the winters.

Let's have a look at the recipe:

Ingredients: 

1 cup Safed Vatana

2 cups water (To Soak)

2 cups water (Pressure cooking)

1 medium sized chopped  Onion

1  chopped Tomato

1 tsp Ginger garlic Paste

Pinch of Asafoetida (Hing)

2 tsp Turmeric Powder

3 tbsp Red Chili Powder

2 tbsp Coriander Powder

1 tbsp Goda Masala

1 tsp Garam Masala

2 tbsp Oil for cooking

Salt 

Coriander

Method: 

Soak 1 cup of Safed vatana in 2 cups of water for 4-5 hours.

We need to pressure cook the vatana and hence add it to the pressure cooker after washing it.

Add 2 cups water to it and add 1 tsp Turmeric Powder, 1 tbsp Red Chili Powder, 1 tbsp Coriander powder, hing and salt.

Pressure cook it for 6-7 whistles until its completely cooked.

In a pot add oil and wait until its warm enough.

Add chopped onion to the pot and let it cook until its softens.

Add ginger garlic paste to the onion and mix it well.

Cook until raw smell of the paste eliminates.

Add chopped tomatoes and give all ingredients a good mix. Cook for 5-7 mins until tomato softens.

Add spices required, 2 tbsp Red Chili powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tbsp coriander powder, 1 tbsp Goda Masala and mix it well.

Add 1 tsp Garam masala and give all a good mix. Wait until oil appears on the edges of the pot.

Now add some water from the pressure cooker to the pot, because the spices would have made the mixture dry.

We can hold on to adding salt if you like as we have already added salt in peas while pressure cooking it. We can always adjust salt later in the process. I added some amount of salt at this point.

After 5 mins of cooking all ingredients, add the vatana to the pot alongwith the water.

Give all a good mix and let the gravy cook for 15 mins on low flame.

Add chopped coriander for garnish and serve hot with rice or rotis.