Usal is a Maharashtrian curried dish made with legumes/sprouted legumes or mixed sprouted beans and is had with pav (dinner rolls), chapati or rice. This Usal recipe comes from the Konkan region of the Maharashtra state in India.
Prep by making homemade sprouts. Sprout ⅓ of dried mixed beans a couple of days earlier. You will need 1 cup of mixed bean sprouts.
Pressure cook or steam the sprouted beans till they are tender. If pressure cooking, then cook the mixed sprouts in 1.5 cups water.
When the bean sprouts are softened and tender, keep the cooked mixed sprouts aside.
Making usal masala
On a frying pan or skillet heat 1 tablespoon oil. Add the chopped onions.
Fry stirring often until the onions soften and look translucent.
Add the fennel seeds and coriander seeds to the onions. Sauté till they smell fragrant.
Add chopped ginger and garlic and sauté these too for 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the desiccated coconut.
Stir and mix it well with the rest of the mixture.
Fry the coconut till golden. But remember not to burn the coconut and to fry the masala on a low heat.
Let the roasted spices and coconut mixture cool. Then make a fine and smooth paste of the masala ingredients in a mixer-grinder or blender with ½ to ⅔ cup water or as needed.
Making usal
In another pot or pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the chopped onions.
Sauté the onions till they turn translucent and are softened.
Next add the chopped tomatoes.
Saute the tomatoes for 2 to 3 mins or till they soften.
Pour the ground masala paste. Since we have already browned the paste, we have less work to do. Simply sauté the paste for 1 to 2 minutes stirring often.
Add the turmeric powder, malvani masala and red chili powder.
Mix the above ground spice powders evenly with the coconut paste.
Add the boiled sprouts to the paste.
Add 1 cup water or the broth or stock (in which the bean sprouts were cooked) or add more, as per the consistency desired by you.
Add salt and stir. Lastly let the entire curry simmer for 10 to 12 minutes or till you see some oil floating on top.
Lastly add chopped coriander leaves.
Serve Usal with steamed rice or bhakri or pav or chapati or poori. You can also make misal pav with this malvani usal recipe.
Notes
Feel free to add the beans or bean sprouts that are available to you. The recipe is easily adaptable to any bean or sprouted beans - moong bean sprouts, moth bean sprouts and even legumes like black chickpeas, white chickpeas, green mung beans, whole masoor dal, adzuki beans, black eyed beans are some good options.
For a spicy usal, you can add some 1 to 2 dried red chillies while roasting the spices.
Both desiccated coconut and fresh coconut work in the recipe. You could add either or an equal mix of both.
Add water as needed to make a medium consistency curry.