Chettinadu Kadala Kuzhambu | White Chick peas in coconut gravy

I have always used the white chick peas (vellai kondai kadalai) to make chole or just sundal. I came across this chettinadu style gravy in a couple of blogs and wanted to try it for a long time. This is a wonderful combination to rice - making a difference to our daily routines of rice, sambar, thoran etc...


I would say this is basically like sambar wherein we have coconut, tamarind and this chick peas. In most of the recipes I saw for Chettinadu Kuzhambu - tamarind was used. We generally don't like a very sour/ tangy taste to the curries. So I made a small change. I didn't use tamarind - just added tomatoes. Also this curry can be made either with black chick peas or white chick peas.



Ingredients :

Kondai kadalai / White channa - 1/2 cup - 75 grams
Chopped Onion - 1 - 75 grams
Chopped Tomato - 2 - 100 grams
Chopped Potato - 1 - 75 grams
Chopped Brinjal - 3 - 75 grams
Turmeric powder - 1/2 spn - 3 grams
Salt - to taste

To Grind:

Grated Coconut - 4 tbspns -  100 grams
Sambar Powder - 2 tspn - 10 grams
Black pepper - 1 tspn - 3 grams

To Temper:

Oil - 2 tspn - 10 grams
mustard - 1 tspn - 3 grams
cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn - 2 grams
Curry leaves - few




Method:

• Wash and soak chick peas over night. Cook the chick peas with salt and turmeric powder and enough water in a pressure cooker.
• In a kadai, heat oil. Add Mustard, once the mustard splutters - add cumin seeds and curry leaves.
• Add chopped onions and fry it until translucent.
• Add tomatoes, potatoes and brinjal. Drain the water from the cooked chick peas and add it here. 
• Let these get cooked. Meanwhile Grind the ingredients under "To Grind" with a little water.
• Once the vegetables are cooked add the chick peas and the ground paste.
• Mix well and check for salt. Cook until all veggies are cooked enough.

Chettinadu Kadala Kuzhambu is ready!!!! Serve with steaming hot rice and papads.


Note:

If you want to add tamarind, take juice from a small lemon sized tamarind and add it along with the ground paste to the curry and boil.
Garlic can also be added. But generally we avoid garlic in sambar like curries.

Linking this recipe to the event South-Indian Cooking conducted by anuzhealthykitchen and hosted by nandooskitchen.

Linking this recipe to the Walk Through Memory Lane event - hosted by Motions and Emotions and conducted by gayathriscookspot