kandi pachadi is a traditional Andhra chutney made with toor dal aka split pigeon peas, red chilies, garlic and cumin. Serve this with plain rice, any breakfast or snack.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 5 minutes
  • Cook time: 5 minutes
  • Total time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 2
  • Category: Main Course
  • Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup toor dal ((split pigeon peas or)kandi pappu)
  • ½ teaspoon cumin (or jeera)
  • 3 red chilies (or green chilies (slit) (adjust to taste))
  • 2 small garlic cloves
  • ½ teaspoon tamarind ((adjust to taste))
  • ¼ teaspoon salt (to taste)
  • 1 teaspoon oil
  • 1 sprig curry leaves
  • 1 clove garlic (crushed)
  • 1 red chili (broken)
  • ¼ teaspoon cumin ((optional))
  • ¼ teaspoon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon Oil

Method

  1. Rinse toor dal very well a few times & drain the water completely.
  2. Heat 1 tsp of oil & fry the dal on a medium flame till you get a nice aroma. Dal has to turn deep golden. Remove to a plate.
  3. Fry red chilies on a low flame till they turn crispy. Add garlic & cumin to the same pan & fry just for 30 seconds.
  4. Cool all the ingredients and add to a blender along with salt & tamarind.
  5. We usually soak tamarind in little warm water and filter it to the grind the chutney.
  6. Grind the ingredients with little water to a smooth or coarse kandi pachadi. Adjust the consistency as desired. Smooth chutney goes well with snacks and breakfasts. Coarse kandi pachadi tastes good with rice.
  7. Taste the toor dal chutney and add more salt and tamarind if needed.

Tempering kandi pachadi

  1. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan, add cumin and mustard.
  2. When they begin to crackle, add curry leaves and garlic.
  3. Fry til curry leaves turn crisp. Pour this to the kandi pachadi and mix well.

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.