Thotakura stems fry

My DH likes green vegetables. When I met his friends for the first time, they asked me if I can cook. And then, they gave a hint that whatever I cook would definitely please him, if I put any sort of green vegetable. We laughed over it! But soon, I realized that they were not joking. He would love to eat green leafy vegetables every day of the week. One day, he saw me throwing away thotakura (amaranth leaves) stems. I usually cut those off and make thotakura pappu (lentils)/ pulusu/ fry. So he then came to me and told me that he had a recipe in mind and not to throw them away. The recipe is pretty simple, yet it tasted great. To me, it tasted like asparagus fry. So here is the recipe for you.......

Ingredients:

For Popu/Tadka:

Chana dal - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Split urad dal - 1 tsp

Curry Leaves

Oil - 1 tbsp

Dry red chillies - 1

Green Chillies - 4 (or more if you like it to be spicy)

turmeric - 1/2 tsp

For the actual recipe:

Thotakura stems (from 1 or 2 bunches of thotakura)

Pallilu karam/ Dhaniya karam/ Idli karampodi. - 1 tbsp (Optional)

Note: You may also add a few amaranth (thotakura) leaves to the fry.

Method:

1. Heat oil in a frying pan. Put chana dal, mustard seeds, red chillies, urad dal and cumin seeds. Now add green chillies and curry leaves .

2. Now, add the thotakura stems and fry it until the stems are soft. To add more flavor, you may put 1 tbsp pallilu karam/ Dhaniya karam/ Idli karampodi.

Enjoy it with rice and rasam.