Cucumber Payasa/ Mullu southe Payasa/ Vegan Southekai Kheer

 Cucumber/ southekai is a vegetable used worldwide either in its raw form (tender) as salads or in curries or other dishes in cooked form. We Mangaloreans (people from Coastal Karnataka) call it mullu southe and we grow them during rainy season. After using tender ones to eat fresh, the remaining cucumbers are allowed to grow bigger and we store them for few months even after the season ends. The matured cucumbers can be stored upto one year nearly and can be used in curries, dosa or in kadubu. They need not be refrigerated unlike the tender ones.

Cucumbers are used in few sweet dishes like guliyappa/ suttavu , sweet dosa/ pachappa and even to make kheer. Sounds interesting, huh!? Then check out this recipe to make this delicious and flavorful payasa and enjoy!

This payasa can be made with only cucumber or to make this thick, one can add fried and soft cooked moong dal which enhances the taste. This dessert is vegan as usually made with thick coconut milk and jaggery. Freshly harvested cucumber makes the payasa richer and tastier.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

Cucumber pieces (finely chopped/ thinly sliced) – 1 cup (1 small / 2 medium cucumbers)

Coconut milk – 1 cup (thick) + 1 cup (thin)

Jaggery – ½ cup (powdered/ grated)

Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp

Rice powder/ arrowroot powder – 1 tsp

 

Method:

• Wash cucumber, peel off the skin and discard. Cut lengthwise and remove core too.
• Now cut each halves of cucumber into 4-5 lengthwise pieces and slice into thin chunks. Neither chop them into very fine pieces nor too bigger ones.
• Take think coconut milk in a thick bottomed vessel, add cucumber piece and boil until they turn soft.
• Meanwhile, boil grated jaggery with little water and allow it to dissolve completely. Strain to remove any impurities.
• When cucumber is cooked, add jaggery syrup prepared. Boil everything well.
• This payasa will become thin. Rice flour is added to get thick creamy consistency. Dissolve 1-2 tsp of rice flour in 2 tbsp of water and add it to the boiling payasa.
• Keep stirring in order to combine everything well.
• Now add thick (first extract) coconut milk to the payasa. Add finely powdered cardamom for flavour.
• Switch off the heat when it starts bubbling or just starts boiling. Don’t over boil it.
• Serve this payasa warm. It tastes great even when chilled.

 

Notes:

Given here is the basic recipe of cucumber payasa. There is a variation possible with added moong dal to this recipe.

In this case, fry half cup of moong dal until you get nice aroma. Pressure cook the dal with required water until soft. Add cooked dal to the payasa before adding jaggery and thick coconut milk. Increase the measure of jaggery to 1 cup. No need of adding rice flour as dal gives the required consistency.