Tomato and Coconut Chutney recipe, a perfect little treat to scoop up with your soft idlis and crispy dosas
A freshly made coconut chutney served with steaming hot idlis or a crisp dosa hot off the pan is a thing of delight.
There are many varieties of this coconut chutney, but I prefer the one with tomatoes. It just adds that much more depth of flavour and dimension.
This easy recipe becomes even more fun to create when using a powerful blender like my new Optimum G.21 Platinum blender. Why? Because the speed and convenience of having a pre-set function to grind means the job is done at the press of a button.
Besides the consistency and texture of the chutney is perfect.
If you are using frozen grated coconut as I do, it will look like this
Tomato and Coconut Chutney
Equipment
- Blender/Mixer-Grinder
Ingredients
For grinding the chutney
- 55 gm Grated coconut – 1/4 cup
- 1/2 large Tomato or 1 small
- 3 Kashmiri red chillies dried
- ½ Green Chilli
- 1 tsp Chana dal or yellow Bengal gram split and without skin
- Ginger – a small knob about the size of your thumbnail
- 2 Small cloves Garlic – without skin
- Salt as per taste
- Water – add according to consistency
For the tadka or tempering
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 5 Curry Leaves
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp Urad dal (split black lentil without skin)
Instructions
- Heat a pan on a medium flame and pan roast the chana dal till it turns a dark brown colour, do not allow it to burn, gently keep moving it on the pan with a wooden spatula. Set aside to cool
- Halve the tomato and add into the blender
- Add the freshly grated coconut, I buy a frozen packet from my local Indian store, have a look at the photograph in my post
- Remove the skin of the ginger – this is best done using the back of a spoon if the ginger is fresh – it will come off easily, of not use a knife
- Now add the garlic cloves, Kashmiri red chillies, and salt. You can increase or decrease the number of Red Chillies depending on how hot you want the chutney to be
- Add the roasted chana dal which should have cooled down by now
- Add about one and a half tbsp water and grind to a thick coarse paste-like consistency.
- The water level depends on how you would like the consistency to be. I generally add a little more water after the first grind and give it one more pulse in my Froothie to get a better pouring consistency
- Decant the chutney into a bowl
- Heat the oil in a kadhai or saucepan and add the mustard seeds in the hot oil
- Once the seeds begin to pop add the urad dal and let it brown, then throw in the fresh curry leaves
- Pour this hot tadka mixture onto the chutney and serve fresh with steaming hot idlis or dosas
A peek inside the blender ..
If you are not using the Froothie power blender, then chop the chillies roughly into small pieces, repeat with the ginger and garlic too.
This is because the sharp blades of the Optimum G2.1 Platinum blender will be able to easily grind the whole ingredients, a task that a regular mixie will struggle with.
I add the dried red Kashmiri chilli for its colour as well as flavour. In many of my curries I just these chillies whole to add a hint of flavour. But remember once made into a paste these chillies release their hidden potency – it’s a very different beast then and the heat can be really intense. So if you don’t deal with heaty – spicy chillies well then use only a half of a Kashmiri chilli in this chutney. It will still add a dash of colour and flavour without scathing your palate
And the green chilli gives it necessary flavour which I find very distinctly pungent and traceable when I eat this chutney, if it was missing I would know instantly and would miss it.
The fresh taste of the chutney and the crunch of the curry leaves is simply irresistible, the tomatoes add just the right amount of tang to this beautiful chutney. Typical to the South of India this recipe is something that most families make with variations of their own. Some even prefer to add some onion or roast the coconut before adding to the blender. whichever recipe you use this chutney will never go out of fashion.
Need an easy recipe for steam idlis, check out my recipe here
*I am an ambassador for Froothie and was sent a Froothie Optimum G2.1 Platinum blender for review. This post has affiliate links.
