Andhra style Gongura pappu

Gongura pappu - an Andhra special dal recipe with gongura or roselle leaves, toor dal, and Indian spices

Gongura is also known as roselle leaves. They grow extensively in coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh throughout the year.

This gongura pappu will be tangy and very tasty with earthy flavor from roselle leaves. As roselle leaves are tangy in taste, I also use them to make pulihora.

Let's begin making Gongura Pappu (Roselle leaves lentils)

In this recipe, I am cooking lentils first and then add a tempering with gongura leaves. This is the usual method we do at home regularly.

And I am also cooking millets along with dal using pot in pot method. This will save time and you can cook dal and millets or rice at once.

I avoid adding leafy greens while pressure cooking the lentils and they will be overcooked and nutrients will be lost.

If you want to make this gongura pappu in large quantities, check my spinach dal recipe and replace spinach with gongura leaves.

Step 1: Cooking lentils in Instant Pot

• Wash toor dal, chana dal, and peanuts well and add it to Instant Pot inner Pot.

• Add water to the washed dal.

• You can also cook rice or millets along with this dal using the pot in pot method.
• If cooking rice or millets, add the trivet to the inner Pot and place the bowl that has rice or millet and water.

• Close the Instant Pot, seal the VENT and use pressure cook or manual mode and cook on HIGH PRESSURE for 5 MINUTES.

• Once the Instant Pot beep, do a pressure release after 10 minutes.
• Take the rice bowl and trivet out of the inner pot and check if dal has been cooked properly. 

If you want to cook toor dal using other methods, check my detailed post on cooking toor dal.

Step 2: Making gongura pappu

In this step, we will use the cooked toor dal mixture and add the tempering to the dal using roselle leaves.

• While the dal is cooking, wash and drain gongura (roselle leaves). Chop them roughly and keep them aside. Also gather other required ingredients.

• Heat a pan or kadai and add oil once it is hot.

• Add cumin seeds, mustard seeds and let them splutter. Then add turmeric powder, red chili, slitted green chili, and chopped garlic.

• Once these are lightly browned, after a minute or so, add chopped gongura leaves.

• Let the roselle leaves or gongura cook for 2 to 3 minutes. And add salt, coriander seeds powder.

• Mix the mixture well and make sure it is not burnt.

• Now add cooked toor dal and peanuts to this gongura mixture.

• Mix it well and let the dal cook for 5 minutes on medium flame.

• Switch off the flame and dish out the dal.
• Andhra delicacy, Gongura pappu is ready to serve!

Recipe Notes and variations:

• You can skip peanuts and chana dal in this recipe and make gongura pappu using only kandi pappu or toor dal. I have added peanuts to add some texture to the dal.
• If you see that dal is not cooked properly after cooking it for 5 minutes, close the lid and pressure cook it again for 3 more minutes.
• Usually, 5 minutes will be sufficient but if you are using very old lentils or hand-pounded lentils, sometimes it may not cook properly.
• In this recipe, I have used red roselle leaves, called erra gongura in Telugu.
• You can use green roselle leaves also to make this recipe.
• If using green roselle leaves, you can increase the number of leaves as these are not sour as red roselle leaves. Just add it according to your preference. At my home, we do not like sour dal, so I added 1 cup of leaves for 2 cups of dal.
• You can skip the garlic and use grated ginger to make this recipe. You can even skip ginger as well.
• Add more water while adding cooked dal according to your preference.

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