Greens gone sour

I bought too many vegetables at the Indian grocers' last weekend. One of the lot was Gongura or sour greens. These greens with their hard, red stalks are a speciality from the South-eastern state of India- Andhra Pradesh. True to their name, they have a sourness that do not go away when cooked. My mom introduced gongura to me- she makes the traditional gongura chutney that is intensely hot and it goes well when mixed with rice and ghee. I wanted to make this chutney but due to my cramped vegetable drawer, the greens had lost their sheen and their leaves had gone brown. I salvaged about a cup of the leaves. What to do with so little? So I searched some of the Andhra blogs like Mahanandi, My cuisine and Passages for a new gongura recipe. But I found one for gongura dal elsewhere and here is how it goes:

Dal with sour greens

3/4 cup pigeon peas, cooked
2 handfuls Gongura leaves, coarsely chopped
4 Green chillies, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
pinch of Turmeric
1 small tomato, chopped
1 tsp cayenne
Salt to taste

Tempering:-

1/2 tsp each Mustard seeds,cummin, urad dal, 2 red chillies(broken),Asafoetida,curryleaves

Make tempering with the given ingredients using 1 tsp oil/ghee,add green chillies, onion,garlic and fry till they get pinkish brown. Add gongura leaves(chopped) and cook, covered for 2 minutes. Now add tomatoes, cayenne, turmeric and salt. Saute for another minute. Add the cooked dal and enough water to make the dal as thin as you like. Simmer for 3 min or so. Serve with rice or roti. This dal is hot and spicy. But you can always reduce the cayenne.