The gorgeous chutney you see in the pictures was made by my good friend Disha who hosted a lovely brunch at her place this Saturday for a few friends. I absolutely loved the freshness and mild sweetness in this chutney and asked for the recipe immediately. She had adapted it from Chandra Padmanabhan’s Simply South.
Now, a quick word about Chandra Padmanabhan’s cookbooks. Although Dakshin ( US | India ) is her more popular and award-winning book, I am partial to Simply South and have tried quite a few recipes from it. If you want a set of good cookbooks to guide you through South Indian vegetarian cooking , I recommend her books. I have all three of her books (her latest book is a compilation of best recipes from the past three with a few new ones added and I don’t own this one).
SOUTH INDIAN COCONUT CHUTNEY (WITH CURD)
Preparation time: 5 minutes Cooking time: 5 minutes Makes ~1 cup Adapted from: Simply South by Chandra Padmanabhan (US | India )
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of grated coconut
- ¼ cup of roasted Bengal gram (pottukadalai / bhuna chana)
- 3-4 of green chillies
- ½" piece of ginger
- 2 tablespoon of chopped coriander leaves
- 3 tablespoon of curd or plain yogurt(ideally with a bit of sourness)
For tempering:
- 1 teaspoon of oil
- ½ teaspoon of mustard seeds
- ¼ teaspoon of cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon of urad dal / ulutham paruppu / uzhunnu parippu
- ¼ teaspoon of asafoetida / hing / perungayam
- 1 of dry red chilli, torn into halves
- 1 sprig of curry leaves
How to Make South Indian Coconut Chutney:
- Grind together - coconut + Bengal gram + ginger + coriander + green chilies + salt to a smooth consistency adding about 3-4 tablespoon of water
- Add curd to this and mix well
- Heat oil for tempering and add the ingredients for tempering in the order given
- When the mustard start to pop, dunk the content into the prepared chutney and mix well
- Serve South Indian coconut chutney with dosa, idli, adai, vada, uthappam, pakoda, etc.
