Sabsige soppu Chitranna / Fresh Dill leaves rice

Eating greens is always a healthier option for healthy life style.My mom used to include lots of green in our diet right from our child hood but these dill leaves were not available at my place.When ever we used to go to my grany's place for holidays I used to see these greens in the local markets/sabji gaadiwaala's there and I loved the fancy look of these leaves(looks like christmas tree leaves for me..he he)and we used to eat various dishes made out of these greens there in my grany's place.
Here in Mumbai these greens are easily available and so I started exploring more recipes using these greens.I got few recipes from my mom in which these greens are used and here comes the first recipe which I tried using dill leaves.This is like our usual chitranna(lemon rice) just that the addition of onions and dill leaves will completely change the flavor of rice.Dill leaves have very strong flavor and so they need to be well sauted or nicely cooked before using it in any dish.

Ingredients:

1 medium bunch fresh dill leaves / Sabsige soppu (approx 1/2 cup when chopped)
1 cup Regular rice
1 big onion,sliced thin
6-7 green chillies,slit
2-3 tbsp groundnuts
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 lemon,squeezed
2 tsp chana dal
1 tsp urad dal
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
a sprig of curry leaves
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Method:

• Cook rice with 2 and 1/4 cups water in pressure cooker.Cool the rice slightly by spreading it over a wide plate.
• Wash and chop dill leaves into fine and keep it aside.
• Heat oil in a big kadai and crackle mustard seeds and add ground nuts and fry for a couple of minutes until they are fried and the skins start splitting up.Add chana dal and urad dal to it and fry again for until they turn light brown in color.
• Add green chillies,curry leaves and fry until they wither.
• Add finely sliced onion and fry for a couple of minutes until translucent.Now add chopped dill leaves and fry for a couple of minutes.This process takes some time,the raw smell of the leaves should go away otherwise it tastes very raw.Sprinkle some water while frying if necessary.
• Add turmeric powder to it and mix well.Now add cooked rice,salt and lemon juice and mix well until everything is incorporated properly.

Serve it warm or at room temperature with some chips/murukku and dahi.

Variations to the rice:

• You can avoid ground nuts and add fresh peas instead and follow the same procedure.
• You can avoid onions in the above recipe if you want.