Toor dal cooked with generous quantities of fresh gongura (sorrel) leaves until the leaves dissolve into the dal, creating a distinctly sour, complex lentil preparation — one of the most frequently made dals in Telangana homes where gongura is available year-round.
Ingredients
1 cup toor dal
2 cups packed fresh gongura leaves (sorrel — available at South Indian grocery stores; the red-stemmed variety is more sour than the green-stemmed)
4 dried red chilli, 4 garlic cloves — coarsely crushed
1 tsp red chilli powder, salt, 1/2 tsp sugar
Method
Cook dal with gongura: Wash toor dal. Place in a pressure cooker with the fresh gongura leaves, 3 cups water and turmeric. The gongura is cooked together with the dal from the beginning — it dissolves completely during pressure cooking.
Pressure cook: Cook on high until first whistle, then medium for 4 to 5 whistles. Open after pressure releases.
Mash: Open the cooker. The gongura leaves will have completely dissolved into the dal, turning it a khaki-green colour. Mash the dal-gongura mixture smooth.
Taste the sourness: The gongura provides significant sourness. Taste — if very sour, add a pinch of sugar.
Add salt: Add salt. Stir.
Make the tempering: Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds — pop. Add asafoetida and curry leaves. Add dried red chilli and crushed garlic — stir until garlic is golden.
Add red chilli powder: Turn low. Add red chilli powder. Stir 15 seconds.
Pour tempering into dal: Pour all the hot tempering into the gongura dal.
Simmer 3 minutes: Cook together 3 minutes. The gongura pappu should be flowing, distinctly sour and the tempering visible on the surface.
Serve: Serve with steamed rice and a drizzle of ghee.
Note: Gongura Pappu (gongura = sorrel, pappu = dal in Telugu) is the most distinctive dal of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh — the gongura plant grows across the Deccan and provides a unique fruity-acidic sourness that no other ingredient can replicate. No tamarind is needed in this dal because the gongura provides all necessary sourness. Red-stemmed gongura is the variety most prized for cooking — more sour and more intensely flavoured than the green-stemmed variety.