Oats Bisi Bele Bhath

The thing about South Indian cuisine apart from being extremely tasty is that they are mostly full of rice-based dishes. And being more health conscious now, I try to replicate the popular dishes with something healthy. In some cases it is replacing rice with oats or wheat. Here I tried out making Bisi Bele Bhath with oats instead of rice and the results were quite satisfactory.

Bisi bele bhath is a famous rice-based dish Karnataka. Bisi-bele-bhath translates to hot-lentil-rice in the Kannada language. It is also known as Bisi bele huliyanna. The preparation of this dish is quite elaborate, involving preparation of spice powder. The spices used, contribute to the unique flavor and taste of this dish. It is served hot along with boondi or potato chips.

So here's our Oats BBB, in fact simpler to make than the traditional one...

Oats Bisi Bele Bhath

Preparation time : 15 min
Cooking time : 25 min
Serves : 4

Ingredients:
Oats - 1 cup (I used rolled oats)
Tur Dal - 1 ½ cups
Chopped Vegetables (Beans, Carrot, Potato, Onion, peas) - together 2 cups, all chopped into ½” pcs
Salt - 1 tsp
Coconut - 1 ½ Tbsp, grated - fresh or dry
Tamarind pulp - 1 Tbsp, adjust acc to taste
Jaggery - 1 big marble sized ball
Oil - ½ Tbsp
Butter - 1 Tbsp, optional
Turmeric - 1 pinch
Salt - 1 tsp, adjust acc to taste
Bisi Bele Bhath powder – 3 Tbsp (1 §)

For the powder:
Chana dal - 2 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Dry red chilies - 8-10
Cinnamon - 1” stick
Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
Cloves - 5-6
Maratha Moggu - 2
Cardamon - 2
Poppy seeds - 2 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

For tempering:Cooking oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Groundnut seeds - 1 tbsp
Curry leaves - 2-3 strands
Red chilies - 1
Turmeric - 1 pinch

Method:
For BBB powder:

• Dry roast all the ingredients
• Allow to cool for 5 minutes
• Grind them into slightly coarse powder
• This can be made in larger quantity and preserved for a couple of months

Bisi Bele Bath:

• Pressure cook dal and vegetables with a pinch of turmeric in sufficient water
• Add tamarind pulp, salt, jaggery, BBB powder and bring to boil
• Add oats and continue cooking for 5-6 minutes till the oats are cooked well. Add more water as needed. Oats absorbs more water so make it runnier than you like the bisi bele bhath to be.
• Add grated coconut and mix thoroughly
• Turn off the flame and add butter and mix

Tempering:

• Heat oil in a pan
• Add mustard seeds and allow to sputter
• Turn the heat low, add groundnut seeds, and stir
• After the groundnuts are half-done, add curry leaves and red chili pieces and stir for half a minute till all the ingredients are properly roasted. Keep aside till needed
• Mix the tempering to the BBB just before serving to retain the crispness of the groundnuts

Notes:

• Make the BBB a very watery with oats. It absorbs the water and gets thickened after sometime.
• An onion can be sautéed and added along with the tempering