Vermicelli (Sewiyan) Lime Bhath

I picked this recipe from the wrapper of Bambino vermicelli and made a little changes to suit our taste like made it less spicy and added some vegetables. You can use any vermicelli for this, doesn't have to be Bambino's only. We liked the dish a lot and it's easy to make. It makes for a good weekend breakfast!

What you'll need:

1 cup Vermicelli
10 tsp lemon juice or 3 lemons
1 Green chilli
2-3 tbsp Groundnuts
1.5 tsp Jeera (Cumin seeds)
1.5 tsp Mustard Seeds
2 tsp Bengal Gram
2 tsp Urad Dal
0.5 tsp Turmeric powder
pinch of asafoetida
3 tsp oil
2 dried red chillies
3-4 curry leaves
0.5 cup vegetables
Salt to taste

Let's start cooking:

1. Boil 2 cups water.
2. To boiling water, add the vermicelli, salt and oil.
3. Once the vermicelli is cooked, take off the flame and drain the water. Put the vermicelli in a colander/sieve and rinse it in cold water.
   
4. Heat oil at medium-high flame and add jeera and mustard seeds.
5. Once the seeds splutter reduce the flame to medium or medium-low; add green chillies, red chillies, black gram, groundnuts and urad dal.
6. Fry them till the groundnuts are well done; at the same time ensuring that other ingredients do not get burnt.
7. Add turmeric and asafoetida; fry for a minute.
8. I used frozen vegetables, so I first heated them in microwave for 2-3 minutes, till they were half-tender and then added them to the above mixture. Fry the vegetables till you think they are well done.
   
9. Reduce the flame to low and add the cooked vermicelli and mix for a minute. If there's a little water when you add vermicelli, mix till the water dries. But don't mix for long or else the vermicelli will get mashed and sticky.
10. Take off the flame and add lemon juice. Mix.
11. Keep it for a little while before serving so that the tanginess of the lemon is well absorbed.
    

Notes:

• The key thing is to cook the vermicelli the right amount: neither over-cooked nor under-cooked. When it is added to the boiling water, it gets cooked really fast; within 1-2 minutes. So keep checking.
• When mixing the vermicelli with the other ingredients, do it lightly so as not to mash the vermicelli.
• Vermicelli should be rinsed well in cold water so that it's not sticky.
  
• If you eat it immediately after adding the lemon juice, you will not get the citrus flavor of lemon. You must keep it for 5-10 minutes for the flavor to be absorbed.