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Curry leaves chutney is one of my favourite chutneys, which goes well with hot plain rice and ghee. The combination of both with the curry leaves chutney is awesome. Curry leaves play an important part in tempering (tadka), in South India and other dishes, including north India. Curry leaves has a nutty flavour and as soon as it is fried you can feel the aroma.
Curry leaves are good for hairs; it will stay strong and black. When I used to remove curry leaf out from my plate, my aunt use to say, if you eat it, good for hair (prevents hair loss). It is said that curry leaves are used as an herb in Ayurveda also and helps in reducing diabetes.
This curry leaves chutney is specially eaten with rice and ghee. It is simple but makes me happy and also easy meal, for lazy days. It’s my father’s all-time favourite. The day my mother prepares it, he enjoys and eat it. Just a drizzle of ghee on rice with this chutney is so good. We call it as kareapak ki chutney (curry leaves chutney).
In Andhra, we prepare curry leaves chutney mostly with dry coconut. You can view my other curry leaves chutney which I have prepared with fresh coconut for variation and both has different taste but not much. In curry leaves chutney, in the end we add sliced onion and mix it, is a must, when you are eating with rice, it gives crunchy taste. Just a drizzle of ghee on rice with this chutney, tastes awesome. You can serve this chutney with idli or dosa.
Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins (excluding grinding)
Cuisine: Andhra Pradesh, India
Serves: 3 to 4
Spiciness: Hot
Ingredients
- Curry leaves – 1 cup
- Garlic cloves (big) – 3
- Dry Coconut – 1/4 cup or 35 gms
- Dry red chillies (small round ones, medium heat) – 8
- Tamarind paste (thick, concentrated) – 1 tsp
- Salt - as per taste
- Water - 1/4 to 1/2 cup
- Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp
Garnishing
- Onion (small, sliced) – 1/2
Method
- Wash curry leaves with water to remove dirt and soil and strain it well. Allow it to dry on a wide plate or kitchen towel for a few minutes.
- Take a pan (tawa) or any vessel and heat it. Add curry leaves and roast until all the water is absorbed.
- It will become crispy and dry. There should not be any water as you can see in the picture.
- After roasting, remove and keep it aside. Dry roast the remaining ingredients (chilli and garlic) except tamarind paste on a low flame.
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- You can roast the dry coconut with curry leaves, but carefully. It can burn easily, so roast on a low flame.
- Chop dry coconut into small pieces. It will be hard to cut, so be careful.
- First grind the dry coconut to a coarse powder or paste. Then add all the remaining ingredients in a mixer or grinder together with a little water and grind. It will be a thick coarse powder or paste.
- To loosen, add the remaining water and salt. Grind further to a smooth paste or very lightly coarse consistency.
- At last you can add the sliced onion in the chutney and mix it well.
- Serve curry leaves chutney with plain hot rice or any breakfast dish with drizzle of ghee.
Notes
- You can increase or decrease the spiciness of the chutney. You can also remove the seeds of few chillies to reduce the heat. You can use any Indian dry chillies. Use chillies as per its hotness not as per the numbers.
- If you want to use fresh green chillies, you can substitute 2 green chillies instead of the dry red ones.
- If using dry tamarind, soak in warm water and squeeze it. Use its juice or pulp for chutney. The sourness can be adjusted according to your taste.
- I have not used any oil while roasting.
- This curry leaves chutney can be eaten with idli or dosa also.
- You can increase the quantity of coconut if you want more quantity (coconut should not dominate over curry leaves), but the taste will change when we change the quantities.
- You can prepare bread sandwich with it as well. Apply the curry leaves chutney on the bread, put some sliced onion, boiled potato, cucumber and tomato. Serve.
- You can refrigerate the chutney for 4 to 5 days. When serving, do not reheat. You can serve immediately or bring to room temperature and serve.
- Drizzle ghee on hot food.
