10 Minute Flavour-Bomb Dips (Onion Chutney/ Vengaya Chutney & Coconut Chutney)
I love the weekend.
Not because it's a two day respite from the mundane but, since becoming vegetarian and taking more of an interest in traditional Kerala cooking, and actually cooking more, I seem to have awakened Amma's (translation: mum) dormant love for cooking. So now, weekends have turned into mini cooking projects.
By 'dormant' I mean my mum's a great cook but sometimes let's just say she doesn't have the patience to be cooking up meals that requires a lot of steps and time. Buuuuutttt when I coax (read: nag) Amma into it, anything is possible :P Also, cooking's more fun when you can enjoy the process with family <3
Food, bringing people together since the dawn of time.
This weekend's project was this crazy vegan protein powder recipe we found online. It literally asked for all the grains we could possibly think of to be soaked, dried, roasted and finally ground. It was a long arduous process, but hey, we get delicious breakfast for dayyyysss!
It's now officially called, 'The 12 grains of Breakfast' hehe :P Yep, we actually used 12 different types of grains. By the time we'd added them all together to be soaked, we realised we'd actually had waaaay more than we could possibly store before it reached its expiration date. That's when the idea struck us, why not make dosa?!?! We'd already got the soaked grains now all we had to do was add some soaked fenugreek seeds (for added flavour) and all we had to do was grind it with a little bit of water. Done.
Now, we couldn't very well have plain dosa, so we also made ourselves some chutney. We didn't stop there either, we decided one chutney wasn't enough so we went ahead and made TWO. We were on a roll, I tell you! Also, they took literally 15 minutes to make, together.
More on the dosa and protein powder in the next post. In this post, lets take a look at these flavour-bomb noms!
The chutney would have been a SPLENDID compliment to the soft and fluffy idlis we made earlier... had we not inhaled it all the weekend before... whoops!
Without teasing you further, *drum roll* here's the big reveal! ENTER Coconut Chutney and Onion Chutney <3
Personal favourite was the coriander chutney just because of how easy it was to make, 10/10 on the ease factor. House favourite, hands-down, was the toasted coconut and tomato chutney. It's incredible how a flavour develops just by roasting it. We may or may not have eaten more dosas just to eat the accompanying chutney hehe.
Eating while taking pictures is only to be expected right?!
Here's the quick and easy recipe for you!
But first, our kitchen essentials!
Kitchen Essentials
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It does the trick without the faff of having to set up large and cumbersome applications in our cozy (read: teeny) kitchen. It's amazingly compact. Seriously, it MAKES you want to cook more, it's that simple to use.
Instructions
1. In a frying pan, heat the oil and lightly toast the urad dal.
2. To the pan add the garlic, chilli and onion. Toast until onions become lightly browned.
3. Now, add the tomato, tamarind pulp, grated coconut and salt. Once tomato begins to soften take it off the flame. Let cool.
4. Blitz in food blender/ mixer. Chutney should have a semi solid consistency.
Tempering
1. 1. Heat coconut oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds then add curry leaves. Once curry leaves become crisp, take off the flame. Pour this seasoning over the chutney. Serve with idli or dosa :)
Instructions
1. In a grinder, grind all the ingredients with 1/4 cup water. Grind to a smooth consistency.
Tempering
1. Heat coconut oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds then add curry leaves. Once curry leaves become crisp, take off the flame. Pour this seasoning over the chutney. Serve with idli or dosa :)
