The most underestimated food item in our country is the chutney. I love chutneys and I have to have some in atleast one meal a day. Remember the usual dialogue dieticians and health conscious people give you? “Fill your plate with colourful fruits and vegetables! Have 5-6 servings and 5-6 fruits/vegetables a day.. blah.. blah.. blah.. ” Now for a lazy (Ive confessed this too many times and I’m not ashamed of it! :P) soul like me it is a nightmare to cut vegetables everyday and fill my plate with a variety of vegetables! So a chutney seemed like the quickest way and the easiest shortcut to all the goodness! Read on!
Ingredients:
- Capsicum or any vegetable of your choice
- Red or Green Chillies
- Salt
- Peanuts
- Urad Dhaal
I generally make 2 chutneys a week in a rotation. If I make a chutney using different colored capsicums and one using yellow pumpkin then next week it would be something different. This way you don’t miss out on anything. You can even make a mixed vegetable one.
So here is a very simple recipe of a capsicum chutney. If you guys are interested I can post recipes of the other chutneys I make too!
- Add a little oil to the container on the stove and fry the urad dal till red in color (make sure it doesn’t turn black!). Remove it and keep it aside.
- Take 2-3 red chillies (you can use Kashmiri chillies if you want a hint of that gorgeous red color or add the round fat red chillies if you like the chutney to be spicy or you can use a mix of both. You can also use green chillies for your dose of Vitamin C đ
- After that, add capsicum. Ive used red, yellow and green capsicum here. You can add any vegetable you want. Ive also added some water to ensure that the capsicum gets cooked. Since I haven’t added a lot of oil I use water. I’ve also added tamarind.
- Next add some salt and ground peanuts to it.
- Let the mixture cool and grind it. I prefer chutneys like these to be a little chunky.
Here are some more ideas to make it yummier!
- You can substitute the tamarind with tomatoes for the sourness.
- You can also add onions and garlic to the chutney. Add it as soon as you add the chillies.
- You can also add a tempering of mustard seeds or cumin seeds.
And voila! You have an accompaniment to your main dish which is packed with the goodness of nutrients!
Hope you like the recipe! Please leave your feedback in the comments section below!
