Vegan Chana Sundal Recipe

Sundal! Usili! Yum! Be it Ganesh Chaturthi or Navratri, our grandmother would prepare a different variety of sundal every day of the festivals.

Why Sundal?

This is the time of year when many different varieties of legumes are harvested, to be made into pulses and stored for the rest of the year. While they are available as fresh, whole legumes, sundal is the dish to feast on! Whole or split, Black, brown, white, and all shades in between, usli is quite a heavy dish! It can keep you full for hours, which was perfect for working for hours in the fields.

Sundal can be prepared from any legume, like white chickpeas, black chickpeas, split bengal gram, green peas, whole moong dal, you name it. Just cook them whole, add in some nuts, spices, herbs and a bit of miso paste, and voila!

Check out our tangy sundal recipe here, and share it with your cousins, aunts and uncles! 🙂

Also check out our coconut thambulli recipe, the perfect accompaniment to usli!

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Recipe by Prathima Prashanth, Health Coach & Plant-based Cooking Expert, NutritionScience.in

Whole Food Plant Based Chana Sundal Recipe

Course: Side Dish for Course 3 (Grain Dishes) for Lunch & Dinner Meals, Festival Dishes, Snack
Cuisine: Satvik Karnataka Recipe from South India
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4 people

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Split Bengal Gram soaked
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
5-6 Curry Leaves
1 Green Chili slit
1/2 inch Ginger chopped
1 pinch Asafoetida / Hing
4 tsp Miso Paste (Healthy Salt Alternative. See Nutrition Science Highlights below)
3 cups Water as required

Garnishing

2 tsp Cashews, Coarsely Powdered
2 tsp Coriander Leaves chopped
Juice of 1/2 Lemon

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Rinse Split Bengal Gram Dal thouroughly and soak it for 2-3 hours in enough water to cover it fully.
2. Drain the soaked water. Boil bengal gram dal on low flame with 1/2 tsp salt and 2-3 cups of water till it is soft and well cooked, but each gram separate from the others. If there is excess water, use for Obbattu Saaru Recipe.
3. While it is cooking, dry roast mustard roast for a few seconds and switch off the stove as soon as its starts sputtering.
4. Garnish with dry mustard tadka, cumin seeds, curry leaves, slit green chili, pepper powder, finely chopped ginger, cashew powder, chopped coriander leaves, lemon juice, and asafoetida. Mix well. Serve fresh!

Plant Based Chef Pro Tips for Best Chana Sundal Recipe

1. Replace split bengal gram with black or white chickpeas and follow the same procedure.
2. Chopped onions can be added as well.

Nutrition Science Highlights for WFPB Chana Sundal Recipe

1. Why Miso Paste? Miso paste is fermented & salted soya bean paste. American Heart Association Maximum recommended maximum daily salt intake of 3.75 grams per person to minimise risk of high blood pressure, stomach cancer and chronic kidney disease. In addition to helping us restrict salt intake, replacing salt with miso paste also helps by neutralising the negative effects of salt by soya phytonutrients. You can easily make fresh miso paste at home by mixing 100 grams of cooked soya paste with 10 grams of salt, or 10 tablespoons of cooked soya paste with 1 tablespoon of salt. If making at home, ensure to use immediately, or freeze in batches to use later. Or, simply use 3.75 grams of salt or less per day per person and add 18 to 20 grams (dry weight) of soya beans in any dishes, spread through the day!
2. Why legumes? Legumes are the #1 number food associated with long life in many recent large studies! They also fuel your gut microbiome through their resistant starch content and slow down glucose absorption, keeping your blood sugar levels steady - even in the next meal! This has been called the Second Meal Effect. This recipe is one of the yummiest ways to include pulses and legumes in your daily diet.
3. Why not tadka? Tadka, thaaLippu, oggaraNe. Tempering spices in oil is quintessential to Indian cuisine. This practice may have started as a compromise when whole nuts were unavailable, and indeed, is more common in inland, drier areas where nuts do not grow easily, all year round. You can enjoy the taste and fragrance, though, by just dry roasting the spices you require, without the oil, or even better, mixing spice powders directly into your dish!