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    Home » Recipes » Kootu Recipes

    Ezhukari kootu recipe, For Thiruvathirai, Pongal

    January 10, 2013 by Raks Anand 41 Comments / Jump to Recipe

    Ezhukari kootu (kootu made with 7 veggies) traditionally made for the south Indian Tamil festival Thiruvathirai and pongal at our home.

    ezhukari kootu | 7 Kari kootu

    This kootu is very flavourful with all our naatu kaigari (country vegetables). Please refer the notes for the vegetables choice.

    This is one of the main Pongal Recipes as well as Thiruvadhira festival. 

    Jump to:
    • About
    • Ingredients
    • My notes
    • Recipe card
    • Step by step images

    During pongal, we make sakkarai pongal, vellai pongal, this ezhukari kootu, vadai and vendakkai sambar on Pongal day. Sometimes make Kalkandu pongal also along with this.

    For thiruvathirai festival, we make it with sweet adai, kali and this kootu.

    7 kari kootu | Ezhukari kootu

    About

    Since we make it for festival, we don't add onion or sambar powder in this kootu. Even the sambar and vadai we make on these days we do not add onion as we offer to God.

    There are lot of traditions followed for Pongal by MOM and MIL, but in Singapore, I make it simple.

    This year no Pongal celebrations for us, but wanted to post this recipe here as I got few requests from the readers. And special thanks to Jeyashri for the veggies and the cute mat.

    Ingredients

    What are the vegetables to be used in ezhu kari kootu, pongal kootu? Any naatu kaai can be used, parangikai, mochai, avarakkai, vazhakkai, sakkarai valli kizhangu, seppankizhangu, karunai kizhangu.

    7 vegetables for pongal kootu

    My notes

    For spice, I have used simply green chillies but you can also grind a spice mix like we do for arachuvitta sambar and add it along. It makes it more flavorful.

    Different vegetable take different time to get cooked, so I add accordingly to retain it's texture.

    What are the vegetables to be avoided in this ezhu kari kootu, pongal kootu? : ‘English veggies’ like carrot, beans, potato etc..; country veggies like brinjal, snake gourd, ash gourd, bottle gourd, ridge gourd, ladies finger, drumstick.

    You can add cluster beans in this. Mochai is must in the kootu, so try to add it fresh or use dried ones.

    Recipe card

    ezhukari kootu
    Print Pin
    5 from 3 votes

    7 kari kootu recipe

    Ezhukari kootu (kootu made with 7 veggies) traditionally made for the south Indian tamil festival thiruvathirai and pongal at our home.
    Course Side Dish
    Cuisine Indian
    Prep Time 15 minutes
    Cook Time 20 minutes
    Servings 4
    Cup measurements

    Ingredients

    • ¼ cup Moong dal Paasi paruppu
    • ½ Raw banana plantain, vazhakkai
    • ½ cup Yellow pumpkin parangikkai, chopped
    • ½ sweet potato sakkaravalli kizhangu
    • ¼ cup Mochai Fresh, peeled
    • 15 broad beans Avarakkai
    • 2 tablespoon Elephant yam Karunai kizhangu, chopped
    • 2 Seppan kizhangu
    • ¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder
    • Salt

    To grind

    • ½ cup coconut grated
    • ¼ tsp rice flour
    • 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
    • 2 Green chillies

    To temper

    • 1 tsp Oil Coconut oil works well
    • ½ tsp mustard
    • 1 curry leaves
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    • Pressure cook moong dal for 2 whistles and keep aside.
    • Peel off the skin of yam, arbi, sweet potato. Wash and chop into tiny cubes.
    • Chop the broad beans finely.
    • Boil 1 cup of water and add these veggies + mochai, turmeric and salt.
    • Meanwhile peel off the skin of plantain and yellow pumpkin and chop into tiny cubes.
    • Add it along the veggies boiling and cook until soft.
    • Grate coconut meanwhile and grind it along with cumin seeds, rice flour, green chilli and little water to a coarse paste.
    • Add the cooked dal, coconut paste and bring to boil.
    • Finally temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table and mix well.

    Notes

    • You can add dried beans as well in this kootu like kaaramani, dried mochai. You have to soak and pre cook before adding.
    • Bitter gourd also can be added in this kootu (which I dont like ;))
    • While the veggies are getting cooked, you can add few curry leaves (torn into two). This gives nice flavour.
    • Using coconut oil for tempering and adding a spoon finally as such, enhances the flavour.
    • We add all ‘gastric veggies’ in this. So it's good to add cumin in this kootu.
    • Do not add yam more as it will be giving itchy feel.
    • Also, do not add sweet potato and yellow pumpkin more as it will turn sweeter.
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    Step by step images

    1. Firstly, pressure cook moong dal with ¾ cup water for 2 whistles.

    step dal

    Preparing vegetables

    1. Peel off the skin of yam, arbi as well as sweet potato. Wash and chop into tiny cubes. Chop the broad beans finely.

    2. After that, boil 1 cup of water and add the chopped veggies + mochai, turmeric and salt.

    3. Meanwhile peel off the skin of plantain and yellow pumpkin and chop into tiny cubes. Add it along the veggies boiling and cook until soft.

    ezhu kari kootu recipe

    4. Grate coconut meanwhile and grind it along with cumin seeds, rice flour, green chilli and little water to a coarse paste.

    grind

    5. Now, add the cooked dal, coconut paste to the cooked vegetables and bring to boil.

    Finally, temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table and mix well.

    temper

    I love this kootu with sakkarai pongal those days. Yeah its weird, but I do eat this way as I don't like to eat too much of sweet continuously those days. This is very very flavourful kootu.

    pongal kootu | ezhukari kootu | Thiruvathirai kootu

    Other Wholesome Kootu recipes

    • Zucchini kootu recipe, with coconut south Indian style
    • Pavakkai pitlai recipe, bitter gourd pitlai
    • Spring onion kootu recipe, vengaya thal kootu
    • Green papaya kootu recipe, pappali kai kootu

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. PriyaVaasu

      January 10, 2013 at 8:37 am

      Paarthale Pasikarathu!!!! So Delicious !!!

      Reply
    2. Shama Nagarajan

      January 10, 2013 at 8:40 am

      Super yummy... .

      Ongoing events:Fast Food - Poha .
      Know your dairy - Milk Events
      in my blog.

      Reply
    3. Shifa Firoz

      January 10, 2013 at 9:32 am

      Raji what is mochai? is it dry beans?

      Reply
    4. Lakshmi Venkatesh

      January 10, 2013 at 10:18 am

      You are making me feel very very hungry and run for grasping some food. Kootu is looking too lovely.

      Reply
    5. Priti S

      January 10, 2013 at 10:52 am

      Looks yum n so the pongal too ...

      Reply
    6. Chella KS Nathan

      January 10, 2013 at 10:54 am

      My amma does it the same way, miss all that now. i can never get all these veggies here:((

      Reply
    7. Priya

      January 10, 2013 at 11:08 am

      Its a must for us, i cant imagine pongal without this kootu.

      Reply
    8. Nagalakshmi V

      January 10, 2013 at 1:04 pm

      wow! look at those vegetables. i am very jealous. how can a mix of all these taste anything but great.

      Reply
    9. Kadhyaa

      January 10, 2013 at 2:13 pm

      sounds so yummy and creamy 🙂 bookmarked

      Reply
    10. Sushma Madhuchandra

      January 10, 2013 at 2:17 pm

      kootu with so many root vegetables, tasty!

      Reply
    11. Uma Ramanujam

      January 10, 2013 at 2:25 pm

      Like the combo of all vegetables. Looks super comfort.

      Reply
    12. Laavanya

      January 10, 2013 at 2:48 pm

      You and Jeyashri have posted the same one 🙂 Lovely kootu and the recipe i use has toor dhal... must try your mung dhal version once.

      Reply
    13. Srimathi

      January 10, 2013 at 3:08 pm

      My mother in law makes thalatha kozhambu which is similar to your kootu. It is a winner for sure.

      Reply
    14. divya

      January 10, 2013 at 3:56 pm

      Delicious n healthy curry! !! Drooling clicks!!

      Reply
    15. Sangeetha

      January 10, 2013 at 5:54 pm

      must have tasted so good with that plain pongal...liked the 1st pic more 🙂

      Reply
    16. Jayanthi Karthikeyan

      January 10, 2013 at 8:19 pm

      Raji, thanks for this authentic recipe.

      Reply
    17. Sudha Sabarish

      January 10, 2013 at 9:02 pm

      Nice combo of veggies and kootu looks yummy.

      Reply
    18. Sangeetha Nambi

      January 11, 2013 at 5:19 am

      Country vegetables... Yummy and healthy one...
      http://recipe-excavator.blogpspot.com

      Reply
    19. Priya Sreeram

      January 11, 2013 at 11:57 am

      make it the same way- happy pongal 🙂

      Reply
    20. revathi

      January 11, 2013 at 12:39 pm

      Very traditional recipe.. I love the medley of veggies ..
      Reva

      Reply
    21. Meena Selvakumaran

      January 11, 2013 at 1:53 pm

      Very inviting .Lovely clicks

      Reply
    22. Apu

      January 11, 2013 at 3:46 pm

      Wonderful winter dish!!

      Reply
    23. Janani

      January 11, 2013 at 3:49 pm

      wow looks super tasty never heard of this kootu ,Looks intresting must try it.

      Reply
    24. Veena Theagarajan

      January 13, 2013 at 4:36 am

      So yummy kootu
      http://great-secret-of-life.blogspot.com

      Reply
    25. Rita Bose

      January 13, 2013 at 9:25 am

      Delicious dish!! Thanx for sharing!!

      Reply
    26. Nagashree

      January 14, 2013 at 3:26 am

      I had tasted this at one of my friend's place, yours looks absolutely divine. Bookmarking it. Happy Pongal to you & yours.

      Reply
    27. Anonymous

      January 15, 2013 at 3:53 pm

      Am drooling over this kootu.. Lovely Moram!! 🙂

      Reply
    28. Anonymous

      January 15, 2013 at 6:05 pm

      WOw lovely kootu Raks...reminds me of the Thiruvadharai Upperi that I make during the Thirivadharai. Many things that we all cook are made during different occasions...Love the mat color!

      Shobha

      Reply
    29. RAKS KITCHEN

      January 16, 2013 at 3:30 pm

      Hindi - Val dal / English - Hyacinth bean or field bean 🙂

      Reply
    30. Sharmilee! :)

      January 18, 2013 at 2:16 pm

      Nice kootu recipe with all those veggies....perfect with paal pongal

      Reply
    31. Jeyashrisuresh

      January 22, 2013 at 1:54 pm

      Nice and flavorful kootu, Beautiful memories too.

      Reply
    32. Nivedhanams Sowmya

      January 25, 2013 at 11:59 am

      romba nalla irukku!!!! so delicious!!! very festive!!!
      Sowmya
      Ongoing Event - Breakfast
      Ongoing Event - Tried and Tasted - Raks Kitchen

      Reply
    33. Venkatalakshmi Kolluru

      February 05, 2013 at 7:25 am

      What made me more happy is your strict adherence to the offering (naivedyam) rules and avoiding onion etc. for this preparation.... it is awesome.... where there is a will there is a way...............Excellent presentation and OUTSTANDING performance.... All Congrats.......:)

      Reply
    34. Baabi

      October 18, 2013 at 3:13 am

      Raks, you are an absolute genius with presentation. I always read your blogs and find that there is rarely anything that I can't understand or is missing, very thorough and detailed explanation. Kudos!!

      Reply
    35. Vanitha Venkatesan

      January 14, 2014 at 4:47 am

      soooo yummmmyyy.... thanks alot madam... this is my first pongal in my mother-in-laws home... i am going to prepare this 7 kari kootu,sweet pongal, and milk pongal tomorrow.... i'm going to rock tomorrow... my mom even prepares like wat u had told.... i guess u belong to saiva pillai caste... anyway thanks alot madam

      Reply
    36. Raks anand

      January 14, 2014 at 4:59 am

      Yes 🙂

      Reply
    37. Anitha D

      January 14, 2014 at 11:38 pm

      Papdi lilva?

      Reply
    38. Malini Nagarajan

      January 16, 2016 at 9:00 am

      Hi Madam,should we avoid brinjal in this kootu?

      Reply
    39. Raks anand

      January 16, 2016 at 9:06 am

      Yes we don't add brinjal I have mentioned in my notes about some veggies that we don't add to the kootu

      Reply
    40. Geetha Neha

      January 16, 2017 at 1:04 pm

      what does seppan n karna kizangu means... avrekayi n mochai are same or wt....

      Reply
    41. Raks anand

      January 16, 2017 at 1:10 pm

      Seppankizhangu is known as arbi in hindi and colacascia is its name. I am not sure about averakayi and mochai if same...

      Reply

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    Raks anand

    Hi, I'm Rajeswari Vijayanand! I am the person behind Rakskitchen, sharing recipes with pictures & videos.

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