Tomato Pappu

The Telugu everyday dal: split pigeon peas cooked with tomatoes and green chillies, mashed smooth, and finished with a tempering of mustard seeds, garlic, and curry leaves

Origin: Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, India

From the journey of Pigeon Pea.

In Telugu, dal is pappu, and on most Telugu tables it is made from kandi, the pigeon pea. Kandi pappu is cooked every day, and what goes into it with the pulse changes with the season and the cook: tomato, spinach, sorrel, raw mango, bottle gourd, or nothing at all. Tomato pappu is the commonest of them, split pigeon peas cooked soft with tomatoes, onion, and green chillies, mashed to a thick purée, and finished with a tempering of mustard seeds, cumin, garlic, dried chilli, and curry leaves. It is eaten the Telugu way, as the first thing on the plate: hot rice, a spoonful of ghee, and pappu mixed in by hand, often with a little avakaya, the fierce mango pickle, on the side. A simple meal of pappu annam, dal and rice, is the food of home. The Deccan plateau grows the pulse on a large scale. Tandur Redgram, from the black-soil country of the Vikarabad district in Telangana, received a Geographical Indication in 2022.

Ingredients

Pappu

150 g split pigeon peas (toor dal or kandi pappu), rinsed
3 medium ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
3 green chillies, slit
0.5 tsp ground turmeric
0.5 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp salt, or to taste
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

Tempering

1 tbsp ghee or groundnut oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
0.5 tsp cumin seeds
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 dried red chillies
1 sprig curry leaves
1 pinch asafoetida

Method

Put the pigeon peas, tomatoes, onion, green chillies, and turmeric in a pan with 600 ml of water. Bring to the boil, skim, and simmer, partly covered, for 30 minutes, until the dal is completely soft. (In a pressure cooker, three or four whistles.)
Add the chilli powder and salt and mash everything together with a whisk or the back of a ladle until smooth and thick.
Heat the ghee in a small pan, add the mustard seeds and, when they pop, the cumin, garlic, dried chillies, curry leaves, and asafoetida. Fry for a few seconds until the garlic is golden and pour over the dal.
Stir in the coriander and serve hot with rice and ghee.

Notes

Palakura pappu (with spinach), mamidikaya pappu (with raw mango), and dosakaya pappu (with yellow cucumber) are made the same way, with the vegetable cooked in with the dal. Pappu should be thick enough to hold a well of ghee in the rice. Adjust with hot water.

The Gastrographer

Name: Tomato Pappu
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 150 g split pigeon peas (toor dal or kandi pappu), rinsed; 3 medium ripe tomatoes, chopped; 1 small onion, chopped; 3 green chillies, slit; 0.5 tsp ground turmeric; 0.5 tsp red chilli powder; 1 tsp salt, or to taste; 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves; 1 tbsp ghee or groundnut oil; 1 tsp mustard seeds; 0.5 tsp cumin seeds; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 2 dried red chillies; 1 sprig curry leaves; 1 pinch asafoetida

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control