First clean the vazhipoo. Take out the bunch of flowers and take out the kallan( the black part. I took this photo from my phone as couldn’t handle the camera in one hand.

Chop them finely and put them in a vessel filled with water and little buttermilk. the addition of buttermilk is to avoid the the discoloration of the vazhaipoo. This can be done on the previous day night and kept in the refrigerator.

After 20 minutes, drain the water and coarsely grind this in a mixer.

Steam this in a greased idli plate or a normal vessel for 12- 15 minutes.

When done allow this to cool and pulse it in a mixer.

Add oil to a pan and throw in the mustard seeds. Drain water from vazhaipoo and saute for 5 minutes, adding salt.

The vazhaipoo will get cooked easily.

Take it out from the pan and keep it aside.

Add oil to the same pan and add the steamed and pulsed dal.

Add a little salt and turmeric powder. Saute well on a low flame for 5- 8 minutes until it is nicely roasted.

Now add the vazhaipoo which we have cooked already.

Mix well with the dal and simmer on a low flame for 2 minutes. Add curry leaves and switch off the flame.

Vazhipoo paruppu usli is ready to serve. Generally when i make paruppu usili ,we will have it Morkuzhambhu or Vatha kuzhambhu. But this time for a change, we had with Garlic rasam and Thengai thogaiyal and Pavakkai Chips.