Pitla

This is the famous, most common Maharashtrian side dish, goes well in combination with Bhakri (Jowar Roti). If you do not have any vegetables in your refrigerator and thinking what side dish to be prepared along with Roti/rice then I would suggest you to go for “Pitla”. It’s the most simplest, easy to cook recipe that can be prepared in very less time.

Ingredients:

Onion	1 finely chopped
Coriander leaves	½ cup finely chopped
Gram flour	¼ cup
Water	1 glass

To temper:

Mustard seeds	½ tea spoon
Cumin seeds	1/2  tea spoon
Turmeric powder	1 tea spoon
Hing/Asafoetida	Pinch of
Curry leaves	6-7
Oil	1 table spoon

For grinding:

Garlic	6-7 cloves
Dry coconut	¼ cup chopped and roasted
Green chilies	4
Ginger	An inch piece

1. First roast the coconut pieces on medium flame until brown color. and grind all the items together listed in for grinding section and make a paste.

2. Heat oil on a medium flame in a pan and when oil is heated add the items to temper first and then the ground paste.

3. Add onions and fry them until translucent, then add the coriander leaves and salt.

4. Then add the water, check for the salt content in the liquid it should be little more as it gets absorbed after adding the gram flour.

5. When the water starts boiling add the flour in small amounts and break the lumps with help of spoon.(do not add the flour at a time it will be difficult to break the lumps). Mix well.

6. When there are no lumps left and we get a semi liquid kind of mixture the we can say that pitla is now ready for eating. We can then garnish it with coriander leaves / fresh grated coconut.