Quinoa Paruppu Podi | Quinoa - Lentil Spice Mix

While coming up with a list of dishes to make with Quinoa, the chosen ingredient for Week 4 in the Mega Blogging Marathon #68 themed Cooking Carnival., I wanted to make some sort of spice mix.And since I am a huge fan of Paruppu Podi , I thought it was a better deal to make it with the addition of Quinoa!

Paruppu podi is a lentil based spice mix that is mixed with hot steamed rice and eaten as the first dish of a meal, especially lunch. To add more flavor and texture sesame oil / ghee is also add along with the spice mix to mix with rice.

I have made mint flavored paruppu podi, Vallarai [Indian Pennywort] paruppu podi ,Oats and garlic flavor , so why not one with Quinoa!!

I used:

Quinoa - 1/2 cup
Toor dal- 1/2 cup
Moong dal- 1/4 cup
Cumin seeds- 1/2 teaspoon
Peppercorns- 1 teaspoon
Red chili-2, broken [adjust to taste]
Salt to taste
Oil- 1 teapsoon

Heat oil in a pan and add the Moong dal, toor dal, cumin,pepper corns, red chilies. Roast on medium heat till the dal turns golden brown. Remove onto a plate to cool.

In the same pan roast the quinoa till it turns light brown and transfer it to the plate with the dal.Let it cool completely.Take this in a mixie jar and grind to a fine powder, adding salt to taste.

Store it in a dry jar.To use, add a couple of teaspoon to piping hot rice, drizzle sesame oil / ghee and mix. Savor it with pappad and a bowl of rasam