This Coconut Chutney recipe is made by grinding fresh coconut with roasted chana dal, green chilies and ginger. The chutney is tempered in oil with mustard seeds, urad dal, cumin seeds, dried red chilies, curry leaves and asafoetida. It has a medium to medium-thick consistency suitable for South Indian snacks. This chutney pairs well with idli, dosa, uttapam and medu vada.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 12 minutes
  • Cook time: 3 minutes
  • Total time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 3
  • Category: Side Dish
  • Cuisine: South Indian, Tamil Nadu

Ingredients

  • ½ cup fresh grated coconut ((tightly packed) or ½ cup desiccated coconut)
  • 2 tablespoons roasted chana dal (- optional)
  • 1 or 2 green chilies (or ½ teaspoon chopped green chillies or serrano or anaheim pepper)
  • ½ inch ginger (- optional, you can also add 1 to 2 small garlic cloves)
  • salt (as per taste)
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons water (or add as required - for grinding)
  • ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
  • ½ teaspoon urad dal ((split and husked black gram))
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds (- optional)
  • 9 to 10 curry leaves (or 1 sprig of curry leaves)
  • 1 pinch asafoetida ((hing))
  • 1 dry red chili (- broken and seeds removed)
  • ½ tablespoon oil (- sesame or peanut or coconut or sunflower oil or any neutral oil)

Method

Grinding Ingredients

  1. Take the freshly grated coconut in a chutney grinder jar or a small grinder jar.
  2. Then add the green chili and ginger.
  3. Next add the roasted chana dal. Also add salt as per taste. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons water.
  4. Grind to a smooth consistency. If unable to grind or the chutney looks thick, then you can add 1 to 2 tablespoons more water.
  5. Remove the chutney in a heatproof bowl like a steel bowl or a pyrex bowl.

Tempering

  1. Heat oil in a small pan. Add the mustard seeds.
  2. When the mustard seeds begin to splutter, add the cumin seeds and urad dal. Fry till the urad dal starts to become golden and aromatic.
  3. Then add the curry leaves, red chili and asafoetida.
  4. Fry for a couple of seconds till the curry leaves become crisp and the red chillies change color making sure that the curry leaves and chilies do not get burnt.
  5. Switch off the heat and immediately pour the tempering on the chutney in the bowl.
  6. Mix the tempering mixture very well.
  7. Serve coconut chutney with idli, dosa, vada, pongal or pakoda of your choice.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.