Bisi bele bath recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian |  Recipe Category: Breakfast
Prep Time: 30 mins   |  Cook time: 30 mins |  Serves: 3  | Author: Raks anand

Click here for cup measurements

Bisi bele bath recipe – bisi bele bath is a tasty, flavourful dish from Karnataka, prepared using rice, toor dal, vegetables and a special spice blend. The name Bisi bele bath itself means hot lentil rice (sambar rice, Karnataka style)

Ingredients

Raw rice – 1/2 cup, heaped
Toor dal – 1/4 cup
Tamarind – 1 tsp, packed
Small onion, shallots – 8
Potato – 1
Fresh peas (I used mochai) – 1/4 cup
Carrot – 1/2
Jaggery – 1/2 tsp
Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
Ghee – 1 tbsp
Cashew nuts – 8

To roast and powder

Red chilli (baydgi variety) – 5
Coriander seeds – 1 & 1/2 tsp
Urad dal – 1/2 tsp
Chana dal – 1 tsp
Black pepper – 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek seeds – 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida – 1/8 tsp
Cinnamon – 1/2 inch piece
Clove – 1
Marathi moggu – 1
Dry coconut – 1 & 1/2 tbsp

Step by step method to prepare bisi bele bath

1. Soak rice, dal separately for 30 mins and pressure cook for 5 whistles in medium flame. I keep tamarind also in pressure cooker for easy extraction of juice. Once done, mash them and extract tamarind juice with 3/4 cup water.



2. Peel potato, carrot and cut into cubes. Boil these veggies with mochai (avarekalu/ field beans) in a cup of water until 3/4th done. Gather the ingredients to be roasted ready.



3. Meanwhile, in ghee, fry cashew nuts until golden and keep aside for garnish. In the same kadai, add red chilli, coriander seeds, urad dal, chana dal, asafoetida, cinnamon, clove, marathi moggu first.



4. Add cumin seeds lastly. give it a stir and add coconut. Roast until golden and cool down. Make sure to roast in low or medium flame to avoid burning.



5. Powder the roasted ingredients once cooled, into a fine powder.



6. In the same kadai, wipe the coconut and add ghee. fry small onions until transparent.



7. By now the veggies would have got cooked 3/4th. Transfer sauteed onion to it.



8. Pour tamarind extract, add in turmeric, salt, jaggery.



9. Add powdered spices and mix well. Bring to boil. If it is too thick, you can add 1/2 cup more water.



10. Add cooked rice, dal, mashed well. Cook carefully in medium flame stirring well to avoid stuck/ burnt at the bottom. You can use any heavy bottomed vessel or even small pressure cooker. Once the mixture heats up and bubbles (2-3 mins), add the fried cashews and switch off the flame.

Tips

• For perfect texture, make sure to add enough water while cooking rice and dal as well as in step 10. I use 1:3 water ratio for both rice and dal.
• I had mochai in stock so added it. You can add fresh green peas or beans too in place of it.
• I used byadgi chilli for colour as well as it is what authentically used in bisibelebath. It looks bit shrunken and longer than the regular red chillies.
• I used desiccated coconut in place of kopra.
• Instead of cashewnuts, I see people using peanuts too for garnish.