Karamani Sundal

Navarathri is a festival of worshiping the goddesses Parvathi (for creative power), Saraswathi (for wisdom) & Lakshmi (for wealth). Navarathri celebrations in Tamilnadu is incomplete without offering sundal (legume salad) to deities. I like to make karamani (black eyed beans) sundal for the soft skin & creamy texture. Today I used karamani of mahogany, peach & white colors and prepared 4 types of sundal.

It is tricky to cook karamani as they may turn either mushy or hard owing to the fact that some beans may require soaking prior to cooking but some may not. If we use the beans grown from early-maturing crops, it is not necessary to soak them before cooking and also it takes less time for cooking. In any case I prefer to soak the beans for 2 hours and pressure cook them after adding water in 1:1 by simmering for 5 minutes after reaching high pressure. Also I used red chillies only for flavor but not for the heat, as some especially children do not like to feel the heat of the seeds of chillies on their tongue.

I prepared spicy sundal using karamani of all 3 colors, aromatic sundal using white karamani, masala sundal using peach karamani & sweet sundal using mahogany karamani. For the recipes you may refer the gifs below that are self explanatory: