Radish and Channa Kara Kuzhambu (Tangy gravy)

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I realized I hadn’t put up any radish recipes on the blog – so I have a couple of recipes coming your way. The first one is a Kara Kuzhambu using radish and channa. Kuzhambu is a gravy dish from Tamil Nadu. There are a lot of varieties of Kuzhambu. I love Kara Kuzhambu in restaurants and wanted to give it a shot at home. The traditional Kara Kuzhambu is a tangy gravy with tamarind, tomatoes, and onions and doesn’t use a lot of veggies. But I knew I had to add in some veggies – so instead of the usual combinations like potato or brinjal, I tried something different to up the game 🙂 So here I am with this new recipe! If you  are a fan of the traditional kuzhambu and are wary of adding veggies in, think of this as just another side-dish! No matter what the name, the combination of radish and tamarind gives this curry a unique taste.

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Did you know? Radish is a low-carb vegetable and hence great for people watching their blood sugar.
What I loved instantly about this recipe is how easy and quick it is to make it! I love recipes where you can put everything into a cooker and you don’t have to do anything else! I thought the addition of lots of veggies would make this kuzhambu taste more like sambhar, but it didn’t. The taste is really different and yummy. Even if you aren’t a huge fan of radish, I would say this is worth a try 🙂
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Radish and Channa Kara Kuzhambu

  • Servings: 3-4
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print
Ingredients
  1. 3 medium sized radishes
  2. 1/2 cup channa (soaked overnight)
  3. 1 large onion
  4. 2 tomatoes
  5. 1 tsp red chilli powder
  6. 1/2 tsp coriander powder
  7. 1/4 tsp turmeric
  8. 1 – 2 tsp tamarind pulp
  9. 1 tsp oil
  10. 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
  11. 1/2 tsp urad seeds
  12. 5-10 curry leaves
  13. Pinch of hing
  14. 1 tbsp coconut (optional)
  15. 1 tbsp roasted gram (Huri kadale) (optional)

Method

  1. Peel and chop the radish into small bite-sized pieces. Chop the onions and tomatoes also finely.
  2. In a cooker, heat the oil. Add urad dal, mustard seeds, curry leaves and hing. Once the mustard seeds splutter, add the chopped onions and tomatoes. Add all the spice powders, salt and sauté for a few minutes.
  3. Then add the chopped radish and channa. Put in 1 cup of water and pressure cook for 2-3 whistles.
  4. Once the cooker releases, add in the tamarind paste. In case you are using fresh tamarind, soak a small lemon-sized ball of tamarind for 10 minutes in water. Squeeze the tamarind well and use the tamarind juice. At this point, if you want, you can grind coconut and roasted gram with some water into a coarse paste and add it to the gravy.
  5. After adding tamarind and coconut paste, boil the Kuzhambu for 5 minutes. At this point adjust salt and spice according to your taste. Serve hot with rice or chapathi!

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