Paruppu Payasam

Paruppu Payasam is a delicious Indian dessert made with lentils, coconut milk, milk and jaggery.  It is made during festivals and special occasions. I usually make it just with milk but this time as per my sister’s advice I also added some coconut milk which made this a lot of more richer and delicious. Try to use the thick or the first milk extracted from the coconut. For more details about how to extract coconut milk, read “How to extract coconut milk“.

Preparation time: 40 minutes

No of servings: 5

Ingredients:

• Moong Dal – 1/2 cup
• Chana dal – 2 tbsp
• Jaggery – 1/4 cup
• Milk – 3/4 cup
• Fresh coconut milk – 1 cup
• Ghee or clarified butter – 1 and 1/2 tsp
• Cashew nut – 1 tbsp
• Cardamom – 2 pods
• A few saffron strands

Method of Preparation:

Dry roast the lentils until a nice aroma starts spreading. Let it cool, wash and pressure cook them with 3/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup of milk for 3 whistles or until the lentils are cooked.

Add crushes jaggery in a pan with a little water and heat it until jaggery melts. Filter the syrup to remove impurities.

Add the syrup back to the pan along with cooked lentils and the remaining milk. Mash the lentils and allow it boil for 5 to 10 minutes over low heat. Finally add coconut milk.

Bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Do not over boil after adding coconut milk.

Fry broken cashew nut in 1/2 tsp of ghee until golden brown. Add saffron, powdered cardamom and the fried cashew nuts to the prepared payasam. Delicious Paruppu Pauasam is ready to serve.