Basics of Indian Cooking: Mint+Coriander+Curry Leaves Chutney Recipe

There are many variations of mint chutney prepared across India. Basic Mint Chutney is prepared without coconut, sometimes we can find this basic mint chutney with yogurt and served to compliment kababs, grills or applied inside a  roti wrap click here for recipe. Basics of Indian cooking is my web journal series to recreate heirloom and forgotten basic Indian recipes.

Using coconut in chutney is a typical southindian and maharastrian version. This mint chutney is best served with idly, dosa, pongal or steam cooked rice. We can store this chutney upto 3 days in a air tight container refrigerated or upto a weeks time frozen.

Subscribe to me on Youtube English and Tamil for regular updates 😀

Ingredients:
1 Cups Mint Leaves
1/2 Cup Curry Leaves
1/2 Cup Coriander
1 Cup Coconut
1/4 Tsp Tamarind
1 Inch Ginger
8 Green Chilies
1 Tsp Mustard Seeds
1 Tsp Black Gram Dhal
2 Dried Red Chilies
1/4 Tsp Asafoetida
Oil as required 
Salt as per taste...

Prep Up:
Peel wash and roughly chop ginger.
Separate the mint leaves, coriander and curry leaves discarding the steams. wash all the leaves thrice, drain excess water using colander reserve.

Peel and chop fresh coconut or use fresh grated coconut.
Wash and roughly chop chilies...

Method:
Heat a wok on medium flame with 2 1/2 Tbsp Oil. Fry the ginger and chilies first once it starts to splutter add the washed Mint+Coriander+Curry Leaves fry for 30 seconds switch off the flame reserve.

In a mixer jar add coconut, tamarind, fried ginger and chilies grind to a coarse paste. Add the sauteed mint, coriander and curry leaves to the coconut along with salt as per taste grind to form smooth paste. We can add little water at a time to grind into a smooth paste, I used 1/4 cup water and 1 tbsp salt.

Once the chutney has formed reserve in a serving dish and reheat the wok to temper the chutney. Add 2 tbsp oil once the oil starts to smoke add mustard, urad dhal and dried red chilies fry for 30 seconds or the mustard should stop spluttering add asafoetida quickly temper the chutney and serve right away with soft fluffy dosas or idly...Enjoy...😉

Chutney used to be a herbal medicine prepared by siddha viadya practitioners several thousand years ago. This herbal concoction gained popularity and was later used as a condiment...British fell in love with Indian Chutneys and used ingredients like tomato, onion and mangoes to prepared their favorite chutney. In 1900 British cook or the Anglo cooks used preservatives like vinegar and lime juice to bottle and store the chutney.