Bassaru with Ragi Mudde
A rural Karnataka meal: toor dal, sprouted moong and greens cooked together, then split into bassaru (a peppery thin saaru made from the cooking water) and palya, eaten with soft ragi balls.
- Region
- Karnataka (Old Mysore)
- Status
- Traditional
- Diet label
- Strictly vegetarian, egg-free
- Time
- Sprouting 1–2 days · Prep 20 min · Cook 40 min
- Serves
- 3
- Difficulty
- Moderate (mudde takes practice)
- Good for
- Everyday dinner
- Tags
- Good source · High fibre · Dairy-free · Soy-free · Whey-free · Gluten-free* · No added sugar
- Allergens
- None of the major allergens (coconut; check hing)
Nutrition (estimated)
- Calories
- 485 kcal
- Protein
- 21 g
- Carbs
- 79 g
- Fat
- 8 g
- Fibre
- 20 g
Headline values are for the full plate.
| kcal | Protein | Carbs | Fat | Sat fat | Fibre | Total sugars | Protein per 100 kcal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bassaru and palya | 295 | 17 g | 39 g | 7 g | 2 g | 14 g | 4 g | 6.0 g |
| Dinner plate: bassaru, palya, 1 ragi mudde (60 g flour) | 485 | 21 g | 79 g | 8 g | 2 g | 20 g | 4 g | 4.5 g |
Good source (plate); the dish alone is High protein. Amaranth leaves used for the greens. Values checked against IFCT 2017 on 14 Oct 2026.
Ingredients
- 120 g toor dal · 100 g sprouted green moong (from 60 g dry)
- 200 g greens: dill (sabsige), amaranth or spinach, chopped · 60 g onion · 80 g tomato · 3 garlic cloves · ½ tsp turmeric · 5 g salt
- Saaru paste: 15 g grated coconut · 1 tbsp coriander seeds · 1 tsp cumin · ½ tsp black pepper · 3 byadgi chillies · 5 g tamarind
- Tempering: 8 g groundnut oil or ghee · ½ tsp mustard seeds · 8 curry leaves · pinch of hing
- Mudde: 180 g ragi flour · 400 ml water · pinch of salt
Method
- Pressure-cook toor dal, sprouts, greens, onion, tomato, garlic and turmeric with 900 ml water for 3 whistles.
- Strain, keeping the liquid (bas). The solids are the palya base.
- Grind the saaru paste ingredients with 100 ml of the bas. Simmer the remaining bas with the paste and salt for 8 minutes — this is the bassaru.
- Temper mustard, curry leaves and hing in the oil; pour half over the bassaru and toss the other half with the palya.
- For mudde, boil the water with salt. Sprinkle in 2 tbsp ragi flour and stir; then add the rest in a mound without stirring. Cover and cook on low 4 minutes.
- Stir vigorously with a wooden stick or the back of a ladle until there are no lumps (2–3 minutes). Wet your palms and shape into 3 balls.
- Serve mudde with bassaru poured over and palya on the side. Pinch off pieces of mudde, dip and swallow rather than chew — the traditional way.
Protein optimisation
- Toor dal supplies 8.5 g per serving, sprouts 4.5 g, greens 2 g; ragi 4.5 g on the plate.
- Boost: serve with 100 g curd (+3.5 g protein, +60 kcal), traditional in many homes.
Variations, serving and storage
- Regional: avarekalu (hyacinth bean) bassaru in winter, with fresh avarekalu instead of sprouts.
- Substitution: steamed rice (40 g raw) instead of mudde.
- Storage: bassaru and palya keep 2 days refrigerated; mudde is best fresh.
- Food safety: reheat bassaru until boiling.
- Meal prep: cook the dal-greens base ahead.
Nutrition values are estimates calculated from the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (ICMR-NIN) and typical product labels. They have not been laboratory-analysed and will vary with your ingredients, brands and cooking. Recipes are for healthy adults and are general information only, not a substitute for advice from a doctor or qualified dietitian. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, cooking for children, have food allergies, or live with kidney disease, diabetes or any other medical condition, please take professional advice about your diet. From the collection Protein-Rich India by Dr. Shantanu Deshpande · drshantanudeshpande.com