Koottu (

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

:கூட்டு), often transcribed "kootu", is a lentil and spicy vegetable stew in South Indian, particularly Tamil and Kerala cuisines. The etymology for koottu derives from the

word "koottu" which means "add" or "mixture/medley" i.e.

vegetable Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...

added with

lentil The lentil (''Vicia lens'' or ''Lens culinaris'') is an annual plant, annual legume grown for its Lens (geometry), lens-shaped edible seeds or ''pulses'', also called ''lentils''. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in Legume, pods, usually w ...

s form the dish, which is semi-solid in consistency. The dish is noted for its nutty and complex flavors and textures, likely owing to the liberal addition of lentils and coconuts. It is typically less watery than sambhar, but more so than dry stir-fries. Virundhu Sappadu (typical Tamil feast) comes with a combination of boiled rice (''Choru'' in Tamil), sambar, rasam,

curd Curd is obtained by Denaturation (biochemistry), coagulating milk in a sequential process called curdling. It can be a final dairy product or the first stage in cheesemaking. The coagulation can be caused by adding rennet, a Kefir cheese, ...

poriyal ''Poṟiyal'' () is a Tamil word for any fried, or sometimes sautéed, vegetable dish. It is called ''palya'' in Kannada, ''vepudu'' in Telugu, and ''mezhukupuratti'' in Malayalam. It is usually made by shallow frying shredded or diced vegetab ...

, koottu, appalam, pickles and banana. All koottus by default have some vegetables and lentils, but many variations of koottu exist: * Poricha Koottu: A koottu made with urad dhal and pepper is called poricha (means "fried" using oil in

) koottu. Fried urad dhal, pepper, few red chilies, some cumin and fresh coconut are ground together. Moong dhal and the cut vegetables are cooked separately. Then, the ground paste, cooked vegetables and moong dhal are mixed and heated. Vegetables such as beans and

snake gourd ''Trichosanthes cucumerina'' is a tropical or subtropical vine. Its variety ''T. cucumerina'' var. ''anguina'' raised for its strikingly long fruit. In Asia, it is eaten immature as a vegetable much like the summer squash and in Africa, the red ...

are common ingredients in this koottu. * Araichivita Koottu: A koottu which has a powdered (freshly ground) masala in it; the word ''araichivita'' in

literally translates to "the one which has been ground and poured." The ground paste is a mixture of fried urid dhal, cumin seeds and coconut. * Araichivita sambar: The chopped vegetables and toor dhal are cooked separately. Then, the ground paste, cooked vegetable and dhal are heated together. Then add the ground paste of coconut,

Bengal gram The chickpea or chick pea (''Cicer arietinum'') is an annual legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae, cultivated for its edible seeds. Its different types are variously known as gram," Bengal gram, garbanzo, garbanzo bean, or Egypt ...

, coriander, red chilies, a few pepper corns, a piece of cinnamon (optionally) - all roasted and ground. Season with mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds. Add the vegetables, including

shallots The shallot is a cultivar group of the onion. Until 2010, the (French red) shallot was classified as a separate species, ''Allium ascalonicum''. The taxon was synonymized with ''Allium cepa'' (the common onion) in 2010, as the difference was to ...

(known as "Madras onions" in India), saute and then add water. Add

tamarind Tamarind (''Tamarindus indica'') is a Legume, leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is indigenous to tropical Africa and naturalized in Asia. The genus ''Tamarindus'' is monotypic taxon, monotypic, meaning that it contains only this spe ...

extract, and then the ground paste and boiled dal. Served with rice. Many other regional variations exist.

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* {{Indian Dishes Indian legume dishes South Indian cuisine Tamil cuisine Sri Lankan soups and stews Vegetarian dishes of India

See also

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