Curry Leaves Powder or Karuveppilai Podi is a dry, herby, spiced powder of fresh curry leaves that have been roasted and ground with roasted lentils and spices like dried red chilies, black pepper, urad dal (black gram) and salt. Along with this, I have also shared the recipe of a flavorful Curry Leaves Rice that uses the same powder.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 10 minutes
  • Cook time: 10 minutes
  • Total time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 1 · 1 Small Jar
  • Category: Spice Blend
  • Cuisine: South Indian, Tamil Nadu

Ingredients

  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil (or any neutral flavored oil)
  • 1 cup or (20 grams) cup curry leaves (- tightly packed)
  • 2 to 3 or (4 grams) dry kashmiri red chillies
  • 1 tablespoon urad dal
  • 1 tablespoon chana dal
  • ⅛ teaspoon hing
  • 1 teaspoon tamarind (- tightly packed)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon jaggery (- optional)
  • 1 cup rice (- yields about 3 cups cooked rice)
  • 2 tbsp sesame oil
  • ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
  • ½ teaspoon urad dal
  • 10 to 12 cashews (- chopped)
  • 1 pinch asafetida
  • 8 to 10 curry leaves
  • salt (as required)
  • 2 to 2.5 tablespoons curry leaves powder (- prepared from the above ingredients)

Method

Roasting Curry Leaves

  1. Keep a small skillet or frying pan on the stovetop and heat it. Let the pan become warm.
  2. Add 1 teaspoon sesame oil.
  3. Next add curry leaves and mix with the oil.
  4. On a low heat stirring often roast the leaves until they are crisp taking care that the leaves do not brown but remain crisp. Take care not to burn the leaves.
  5. Remove the roasted curry leaves from the pan and set them aside in a plate.

Roasting Spices & Lentils

  1. Keep heat to a low. In the same pan, add the dry red chillies.
  2. Stirring often roast until the chilies look crisp and their color changes. Remove and set aside.
  3. Next to the same pan, add ½ teaspoon sesame oil. Add the urad dal.
  4. Stirring often roast urad dal until golden but do not burn. Fry on low to medium-low heat and adjust the heat as needed.
  5. Remove the golden roasted lentils and set them aside.
  6. Add ½ teaspoon sesame oil again. Add the chana dal.
  7. Roast the lentils until golden. Stir often while roasting them for even cooking.
  8. Once the chana dal turns golden, turn off the heat and add asafoetida.
  9. Mix and stir the asafoetida with the chana dal. The asafoetida will cook with the residue heat of the pan.
  10. Remove the roasted golden chana dal, asafoetida and oil mixture and set aside.
  11. Next place the tamarind in pan. Press with spatula to cook it.
  12. Turn it a few times as needed and cook until lightly hot on a low heat.
  13. Do not burn. Set aside the tamarind.

Making Curry Leaves Powder

  1. Let the roasted ingredients - curry leaves, lentils, spices and tamarind cool at room temperature.
  2. Once cooled, add all of the these roasted ingredients to a spice-grinder or mixer-grinder or a high speed blender.
  3. Add ½ teaspoon salt or according to taste.
  4. Grind to a fine or semi-fine powder.
  5. Using a spoon transfer the curry leaves powder to a small glass jar or an air-tight container.

Serving & Storage Suggestions

  1. Store Curry Leaves Powder in the glass jar or an air-tight container in a cool dry place or in the fridge. This spice blend keeps well for about 2 to 3 weeks in the fridge
  2. You could either mix the curry leaves powder with steamed rice and some sesame oil or enjoy it as a podi with idli or dosa.
  3. The curry leaves podi also pairs well with curd rice.

Making Curry Leaves Rice

  1. To make the Curry Leaves Rice, either mix the curry leaves powder with steamed rice or you can do a tempering of spices and nuts as listed below.
  2. You can use a few hours leftover cooked rice or chose to cook raw rice in a pan, stovetop pressure cooker, electric rice cooker or Instant Pot adding water as needed.
  3. To do the tempering, first heat sesame oil in a frying pan or kadai.
  4. Add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds begin to crackle, add the urad dal.
  5. Fry the urad lentils until light golden.
  6. When they start becoming light golden, add the chopped cashews.
  7. Stirring non-stop fry cashews until golden. The lentils would also turn golden by the time the cashews turn golden.
  8. Add curry leaves and asafetida. Mix well.
  9. Turn off heat and add cooked rice, salt and curry leaves powder.
  10. Mix thoroughly and serve Curry Leaves Rice.

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.