Capsicum chutney

Capsicum also called as Shimla mirch in India. There are various colours of capsicums and interestingly each one has got a unique taste. I have tried to make chutney with this by blending it with some daals, onion and yes, green chili too.

Capsicum Chutney

Ingredients:

Capsicum - 1 large

Green chilii - 3

Onion - small 1

Coriander - Handful

Chana daal / Senagapappu - 1 tbsp

Urad daal - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Salt

Method:

Dry roast chana daal, urad daal and cumin seperately.

In the same pan add 1 tsp of oil and when it is warm enough, toss the capsicum chunks. Leave them as crunchy. Remove them and keep aside.

To the same pan add chopped chilli, onion and coriander one after the other.

Allow them to cook till soft.

Now bring everything to the room temperature and pulse it by adding enough salt.

Ready to pulse

Pachchi kaaram

This is another instant chutney that can be prepared with all raw ingredients. Combining the onion with spicy chillies and tangy tamarind will give the extra kick. This will be a good companion for mild rotis.

Ingredients:

Onion – 2 – Skinned and chopped into big chunks

Green chilli – 6-8

Tamarind – marble size

Salt

Thick curd / Yoghurt - 1 tsp

Method:

Mix everything and blend into coarse paste.

My meals - Chapathi, Peanut powder, Carrot, Cucumber, Onion chutney and yoghurt

Enjoy with dosa or chapathi

Sweet chutney for chaats

This is another chutney served with chaats or samosas. It is a sweet and sour combination mixed with some spices. Unlike green chutney, this sweet chutney is prepared with array of spices. As the process is bit time taking, I will prepare it in large quantities and freeze it.

Sweet tamarind chutney

Ingredients:

Tamarind - fist full / 2 large lemons size

Dates - 8 - 10

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Salt

Aamchur / Dry mango powder - 1 tsp

Black salt - 1 tsp

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Coriander Powder - 1 tsp

Method:

Soak the tamarind. Squeeze well and remove the unwanted stuff.

Remove the seeds from the dates.

Soak the dates in 3 tbsp of hot water or boil them for 2-3 minutes until mushy.

Now pulse the dates and tamarind pulp along with the spices.

Remove it into a microwave bowl and add roughly 1 cup of water to it and bring it to boil.

It will take approximately 10 minutes to do.

Make sure to stir in between.

When the tamarind mixture gets cooked, it will become thick and consistent.

Serve it along with other chutneys for chaat

Green Chutney for Chaat

This is a great combination of herbs and with a punch of spicy green chilli. Takes few minutes to prepare. This chutney adds wonderful colour to the chats.

Ingredients:

Coriander - 1 bunch
Mint - 1 small bunch or 1/2 of the amount of the coriander
Green chilli - 5-6
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Salt
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp

Method:

Wash the leaves thoroughly and allow to drain for a while. Other wise the chutney will become more watery.
Pulse every thing into fine paste.

Serve it with poori chaats or with samosas or any kind of bhajis.

Sorakaaya Thokku Pachadi

Bottle gourd is the one of the favourite vegetables of Indians and has numerous medicinal values. We can make use of each and every bit of this vegetable and the skin is not exceptional. We can make a nice coarse tangy chutney. 

When I made the bottle gourd halwa, I had this peel left behind. So I made this chutney.

Ingredients:

Bottlegourd Peel / Sorakaya Thokku - 1 cup

Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp

Peanuts – 1 tbsp

Cumin Seeds / Jeera - 1/2 tsp

Bengal Gram / Channa dal - 1 tsp

Red Chilli – 4-6

Tamarind - small marble size

Salt to taste

Oil - 1 tsp

Method to prepare:

Wash and peel the skin from the bottle gourd.

Dry roast peanuts, remove the skin and keep them aside.

Now heat the same pan with oil, add coriander seeds,  cumin seeds and bengal gram. Remove and keep them aside.

Then to the same pan add the red chilies and the peels, saute well.

Remove and allow it cool.

Once it is cooled down, grid to a coarse paste.

If you wish, you can add seasoning to this chutney. I have avoided the seasoning as we have roasted all the ingredients in oil.

You can have this chutney with rice, dosa or idly or as per your wish.

I had this with ponganaalu.

Ginger chutney with Red chili / Allam Pandu mirarapakaaya pachadi

An innovative chutney recipe with ginger blended with spicy ripened red chilli, salt, lemon and seasoned with few spices. Just to retain the vibrant colour, I have used lemon and skipped the tamarind. As this can be treated as an instant pickle, we do not use much oil.

This is a very spicy chutney goes very well with any kind of stuffed paratas or just with plain rice and a dollop of ghee.

Ingredients:

Ripened Red chili - 10

Lemon - 1

Ginger - 2 two inches pieces

Salt

Seasoning:

Garlic - 1 large clove

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - 1 string

Oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

Rinse the red chilli and pat them dry with out any traces of water.

Peel and chop the ginger into small chunks

Now pound or grind the red chilli, ginger along with salt.

Remove it into a bowl. Squeeze the lemon juice and mix every thing.

Heat a small pan with oil.

When it is warm enough, add mustard, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and garlic.

Fry them until garlic changes into golden brown colour.

Add the seasoning to the chutney.

Allow it to cool down completely and store it in an air tight bottle.

As this is an instant pickle, the life time is comparatively less. Still remains fresh up to 10 days when refrigerated.

Pappulu allam chutney (Roasted chickpea with ginger)

This is an instant chutney with fewer ingredients. Roasted chikpea combined with ginger and green chili is a tasty combination that can be served with any Indian tiffins. Adding ginger will give the extra punch.

Ingredients:

Pappulu / putnalu (Roasted chick pea) – ½ cup

Green chilli – 4
Ginger – ½ inch
Salt

For Tampering:

Oil, Mustard, Cumin seeds, Urad dal, Curry leaves, Dry chilli

 Roasted chickpea, ginger and green chili

Method:

Grind roasted chickpea, green chillies, ginger and salt by adding water into paste like chutney consistency.

Heat a small pan with oil. When it is hot enough add Red chilli then urad dal, when they change colour, add mustard, cumin and curry leaves. Saute for less than a minute and pour on to the top of chutney.

Served with dosa

Peanut chutney - 2

This is another variety of the peanut chutney with dry chili and onion. This chutney is a good companion with plain rice or pongal or sangati.

Ingredients:
Roasted and de-skinned peanuts – 1 cup
Onion medium – 1 diced
Dry red chili – 8
Roasted Sesame seeds – 1 tbsp
Tamarind – ½ of the lemon size
Grated jaggery – 1 tsp.

Peanut chutney

Method:

Dry roast the sesame seeds and keep them aside.

Add 1/2 tsp of oil into the same pan and when it is hot enough, fry red chilies until black dots found, keep them aside.

Fry the onion chunks until transparent and keep them aside. 

Allow them to cool.

Roasted Red chili, Onion, Peanuts, Sesame seeds and jaggery

Grind peanuts with all the ingredients except onion. Make sure that the chutney should be bit coarsely done. Add the onion at the end and pulse again for few seconds, so that the onion will get mixed well and still retain the crunchy texture.

You can serve this as it is or do the seasoning and serve

This chutney goes well with any tiffin varieties or hot rice with Ghee or even with chapathi.

Neyyi pongal with peanut chutney

Mango chutney / Maamidi kaaya thokku pachadi

This is like an instant pickle but with little salt and oil. Can go as a nice companion with rice. This will taste more delicious when pounded in a hand mortar rather than in electric grinders.

Mango chutney

Ingredients:
2 medium raw mangoes
Roasted Chili - 4-5 or Chili powder - 2 tsp

Salt as per taste

For seasoning -
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Garlic - 3 - 4 cloves
Dry chili - 1 or 2
Curry leaves - 1 string

Green mangoes

Chop the mango and grind the mango pieces coarsely with salt and chili. For seasoning, heat a pan with oil. Add mustard, curry leaves, chili and garlic one after the other. Add the seasoning to the mango mixture. This can be preserved upto 3 days with out keeping it in the fridge. This will taste more from second day onwards.

This is also a nice companion for any daal recipe

నోరూరించే మామిడికాయ పచ్చడన్నం

Coconut Chutney

This is another best companion of South Indian breakfasts. Either you can prepare the plain chutney just by adding 1 or 2 green chilies or you can add mint / corriander / ginger of your taste. I like the plain one. 

As coconut have the sweet tendency, I have added aamchur / dry mango powder to suppress the sweetness and enhance the taste.

Coconut chutney

Ingredients:
Fresh Coconut - 1/2 Kernel
Green chili - 2
Aam chur / dry mango  powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt
For Seasoning
1 tbsp of oil, Red chili, mustard, cumin, curry leaves and urad daal

Fresh coconut

Method:

Either chop the coconut into thin pieces or grate it. Grind the coconut, green chili, salt and aamchur powder into fine paste. Do the seasoning by adding oil in a pan and add all the seasoning ingredients one after the other. Pour the seasoning over the chutney.

Coconut chutney

Coriander Chutney - 2

 Coriander Chutney

Ingredients:

Urad Dal - 4 tsp
Chana Dal - 3 tsp
Red Chillies - 3
Green Chilli - 1
Peanuts - 1 tbsp
Coconut - 1 tbsp
Hing - a pinch
Salt
Coriander Leaves/Cilantro - 1 small bunch
Oil - 3 tsp
Tamarind - a small piece

Method:
Heat oil in a pan and add peanuts, urad dal, chana dal, red chillies, and fry till they turn brown. Keep them away.
In the same pan add coriander,green chilli, coconut,tamarind and hing and fry until the coriander becomes soft.
Cool and grind to a coarse paste by adding no more than 1 or 2 tsp water.
Mix with piping hot rice and ghee or you can even spread this on top of the toast.

Coriander Chutney on top of toast

Corriander Chutney

This is a simple raw coriander chutney. Instead of frying, I just ground all the ingredients to retain the astringent smell with the touch of seasoning.

Ingredients:

Coriander - 1 bunch

Ginger - 1 inch

Green chilli - 4-5

Tamarind - 1/2 lemon size

Salt

For Seasoning:

Urad daal - 1 tsp

Chana daal / Bengal Gram - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 1 string

Mustard and Cumin - 1 tsp

Dry Red chilli - 2

Oil - 2 tsp

Grind coriander,green chilli,ginger and tamarind into fine paste and do seasoning.

Coriander Chutney

You can substitute pickles with this spicy chutney which forms a nice treat for curd rice

Bombai chutney

 Bombai chutney

This is a famous recipe prepared in combination with Poori or Masala Dosa.

Ingredients:
Onion – 1 (Cut into small pieces)
Tomato – 1
Chick pea flour (Basin / Senagapindi) – ½ cup
Water – 3 cups
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Green chili – 2 chopped into small pieces (You can also use Chili paste)
Curry leaves (Twist and tear them into 2 pieces and the aroma doubles)
Oil – 1 tbsp
Salt – 1 ½ tsp

Method:

Mix basin + salt with water and stir well to avoid any lumps and keep it aside.

Heat a tawa with oil and when the oil is warm enough, add green chillies, onion, mustard, cumin, curry leaves and fry for 2 min. Now add chopped tomatoes and stir again and cover it with lid for 2 minutes. Stir again and when the tomato becomes mushy add the basin mixture and stir continuously by reducing the flame. Until the raw smell goes stir occasionally. Slowly the content gets thick and leaves a nice aroma. Remove from the heat. Though it looks bit watery when it is just done, it will become thick once it became cool.

Will be a nice combination for Poori or Dosa

Note - You can also add 1 or 2  boiled and mashed potatoes at the end.

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:

Tomato – 6
Green chili - 6
Roasted Urad Daal – 1 tbsp
Roasted Peanuts – 2 tbsp
Onion – 1
Salt
Oil – 2 tsp

For Tampering:
Red chili – 1
Curry leaves – Hand full
Mustard + Cumin – 1 tsp
Urad daal – ½ tsp

Method:

Roast Urad daal and peanuts separately

Heat a pan with 2 tsp of oil. Fry Onion, green chili, tomato until tomato becomes mushy and the raw smell goes.

Allow them to cool and grind the tomato mixture along with salt, urad daal and peanuts into smooth paste.

For seasoning, heat a pan with 1 tsp of oil. Add all the ingredients mentioned above for tampering and add it to the chutney.

Peanut chutney

This is the most common chutney variety in South Indian kitchen. Can be served with idly, dosa, upma or even rice or roti.

Ingredients:
Peanuts – 1 cup

Green chillis – 8
Tomato – 1 – Cut into big chunks (optional)
Tamarind – half of the lemon size
Onion – 1 cut into big chunks.

Method:

Roast the peanuts either in a pan or in Microwave or oven. If you roast them in pan you can see black dots. But if you do it in oven or microwave, you won’t see the black spots. Only way is to remember the timing to roast 1 cup. I normally microwave (mine is 900 watts) for 3 min. Stirring them in between, so that the centre ones move to the corners and vice versa and will get roasted evenly.

Heat a pan with one spoon of oil and when it is hot, add onion, green chilies, tomato pieces, tamarind and salt. Sprinkle some water and cover it with lid for 5 minutes. Stir in between and remove from fire when every thing looks translucent. Allow it to cool.

When every thing is cool, grind every thing together except onion. Add onion at the end and just pulse it for few seconds.

Peanuts – you can grind them with skin or with out skin. For me it doesn’t matter in the daily rush. Those who have enough time and patience can remove the skin and grind.

Season the chutney with mustard, Urad daal, Red chilli and curry leaves
 

Seasoning for Peanut chutney

 

Peanut chutney