Foxtail sevai folded through wilted amaranth greens cooked down with garlic and dried red chilli, finished with coconut and a squeeze of lime.
Ingredients
From the TrooFoodz pantry
- Sprouted Foxtail Millet Vermicelli 1 pack (180 g)
Fresh
- Amaranth leaves (mulai keerai), stripped and chopped 1 large bunch
- Garlic, sliced 6 cloves
- Dried red chillies, broken 3
- Small onions (shallots), chopped 8
- Fresh coconut, grated 1/3 cup
- Gingelly (sesame) oil 3 tbsp
- Mustard seeds 1 tsp
- Urad dal 1 tsp
- Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
- Lime, juiced 1/2
- Salt to taste
Method
-
Prep the greens
Strip the amaranth leaves and tender stems from the tough stalks, wash in three changes of water, and chop roughly. Grit hides in keerai.
-
Cook the sevai
Boil the vermicelli two minutes, drain and rinse cold so it stays separate while the greens cook.
-
Garlic and chilli
Heat the sesame oil, crackle mustard and cumin, fry urad dal, then add the garlic and red chilli and cook until the garlic is pale gold.
-
Sweat the shallots
Add the shallots and cook until soft. Their sweetness is what balances the mineral edge of amaranth.
-
Wilt the keerai
Pile in the greens with salt and cook uncovered on a high flame, stirring, until they collapse and the released water boils away. Do not cover or they turn grey.
-
Fold and finish
Fold the sevai through the greens, take the pan off the heat, and add the coconut and lime juice.
Why this works
Amaranth releases a lot of water as it wilts, so cooking it uncovered on high heat keeps the dish from turning soupy and preserves the leaves' colour. The garlic and dried chilli give the greens a savoury backbone they lack on their own. Lime at the end brightens what would otherwise read as flat and mineral.
Make it your own
- Sprouted Foxtail Millet Vermicelli → Sprouted Kodo Millet & Moringa Vermicelli Doubles the green character; the moringa note runs alongside the keerai.
- Amaranth leaves → Spinach Milder and softer; it wilts faster, so cut the cooking time in half.
- Gingelly oil → Coconut oil Softer and sweeter, pushing the dish towards a Kerala thoran profile.
