Instant Pot Tomato Charu with Onions

5 from 1 vote

Soothing and comforting Andhra / Telangana special tomato-onion charu recipe prepared in Instant Pot with garlic tempering.

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

Total Time50

Course: rice accompaniment

Cuisine: Andhra/Telangana Cuisine

Keyword: Instant Pot Tomato Charu with Onions, Pappu Charu

Servings:

Calories: 117kcal

Author: Srividhya G

Ingredients

½ cup Split Pigeon Peas toor dal
4 cups Water 2 cups + 2 cups
1 Green chili
⅓ cup Onion chopped
1 Tomato
1 tbsp Tamarind paste
¾ tsp Red chili powder
½ tsp Coriander Powder
¼ tsp Pepper Powder
¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
¼ cup Cilantro chopped
2 tsps Salt

For tempering

2 tsps Oil or ghee
1 tsp Mustard seeds
2 tsp Cumin Seeds
6 Curry leaves
5 Garlic crushed
½ tsp Hing

Instructions

Prep - work: Wash the toor dal and set aside. Chop the onion, cilantro, and tomato. Slit the green chili. Peel and crush the garlic cloves and set aside. If you are not using tamarind paste, then soak small gooseberry sized tamarind in water for ½ hour and extract 1 cup juice.
In the Instant Pot, add the washed toor dal, onion, tomato, green chili, tamarind paste/extract, red chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, and salt.
Add 2 cups of water (if using tamarind extract, add one cup of water) and mix well.
Set it in manual mode and cook for 12 minutes and let the pressure release normally.
Note: The above three steps can be done in a pressure cooker too. Add all the ingredients and pressure cook for up to 4 whistles.
Once the pressure is all gone, open the IP and mash the mixture with a ladle or potato masher and set it in saute mode.
Add two more cups of water and the chopped cilantro and pepper powder and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
In a separate tadka pan, heat ghee or oil. Once the ghee is hot, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, hing and crushed garlic.
Let the garlic brown for a bit and add this garlic tempering to the simmering charu.
Let it simmer for a couple more minutes, and that's it.
Yummy charu is ready. Garnish with more cilantro and serve hot.

Notes

You adjust the green chilies, salt, and spices as per your preference.
I did not add any jaggery, but if preferred a small piece or 1 tsp of sugar can be included.
While tempering, let the garlic brown nicely. That adds a distinct flavor to this rasam. I used small garlic cloves. If you prefer more garlic, you can add upto 7 to 8 garlic cloves.

Adapted from Cooking4AllSeasons

Nutrition