Little millet sevai tossed with carrot, beans and peas cooked crisp-tender, lifted with pepper and a squeeze of lime at the table.
Ingredients
From the TrooFoodz pantry
- Sprouted Little Millet Vermicelli 1 pack (180 g)
Fresh
- Carrot, finely diced 1
- French beans, finely chopped 12
- Green peas 1/2 cup
- Capsicum, diced 1/2
- Onion, finely chopped 1
- Groundnut oil 3 tbsp
- Mustard seeds 1 tsp
- Chana dal 1 tbsp
- Green chillies, slit 2
- Curry leaves 1 sprig
- Black pepper, coarsely ground 1 tsp
- Lime, cut in wedges 1
- Salt to taste
Method
-
Dice evenly
Cut the carrot and beans to roughly the thickness of the vermicelli so every forkful carries both. Uneven dice is what makes vegetable sevai read as two separate dishes.
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Cook the sevai
Boil the vermicelli three minutes, drain, rinse cold and set aside uncovered.
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Start the tempering
Crackle mustard in hot oil, fry the chana dal to gold, then add green chilli and curry leaves.
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Sweat the onion
Add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook until soft and translucent but not coloured.
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Hard vegetables first
Add carrot and beans and stir on a high flame for four minutes, then peas and capsicum for two more. They should stay bright and just past raw.
-
Toss and pepper
Fold the sevai in, season, and grind the pepper over at the end so its aroma survives. Serve with lime wedges.
Why this works
Staging the vegetables by density keeps the carrot cooked through while the capsicum stays crisp, which gives the dish its range of textures. Cooking on a high flame drives off moisture so the sevai does not steam and slump. Pepper ground at the end rather than fried keeps its volatile aroma, and the lime is left to the eater so the strands do not soften in advance.
Make it your own
- Sprouted Little Millet Vermicelli → Sprouted Foxtail Millet Vermicelli Firmer strand that stands up better to a vigorous toss.
- Green peas → Sweetcorn kernels Sweeter and juicier; add them with the capsicum.
- Black pepper → Crushed dried red chilli More direct heat and less floral warmth; add it with the tempering instead.
