Kara chutney recipe for idli dosa with onion, tomato and both green red chillies and black pepper for extra spiciness.

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I always make onion tomato chutney with coconut if I am making. But last week when I saw a video, I was tempted to make something spicy that is served in roadside shops as kara chutney, that is slightly watery.
And ended up with this chutney. This was super spicy, just the way I wanted.
This should be handy when I have no coconut in hand. Perfect for idli and all types of dosa. Check out other easy chutney recipes collection.
When it comes to chutney for idli dosa, we always want variation even if it is a slight one.
Everything counts, the ingredients, the process, the stages when we add the ingredient. So this chutney is also one of my trials to make something different from the usual.
Kara means spicy in Tamil. So this is a spicy side dish for breakfast like idli.
Let's see how to make kara chutney.
Step by step photos
- In a pan, heat 1 teaspoon oil, roast 1 tablespoon chana dal, 2 red chillies. Once chana dal is golden, add black pepper, garlic, roughly chopped onion, tomato, green chilli, curry leaves.
2. Once tomatoes are soft, transfer to a plate and cool down completely.
3. Transfer to a mixer and grind smoothly with salt. Add water to get right consistency you need.
4. This is optional, if you want you can temper with mustard, urad dal and curry leaves in a teaspoon of oil.
We had with godhuma dosa and it was really great.
Recipe card
Spicy kara chutney recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Onion
- 1 Tomato
- 3 cloves Garlic
- 2 Red chilli
- 2 Green chilli
- 1 teaspoon Black pepper
- 1 tablespoon Chana dal
- 1 sprig Curry leaves
- Salt
- 1 teaspoon Oil
To temper
- 1 teaspoon Oil
- ½ teaspoon Mustard
- 1 teaspoon Urad dal
- 1 sprig Curry leaves
Instructions
- In a pan, heat 1 teaspoon oil, roast 1 tablespoon chana dal, 2 red chillies.
- Once chana dal is golden, add black pepper, garlic, roughly chopped onion, tomato, green chilli, curry leaves.
- Once tomatoes are soft, transfer to a plate and cool down completely.
- Transfer to a mixer and grind smoothly with salt. Add water to get right consistency you need.
- This is optional, if you want you can temper with mustard, urad dal and curry leaves in a teaspoon of oil.
Notes
- I added 3 red chillies, but it was too spicy, so reduced one chilli in the recipe.
Anupama Mundhra
Hey, sounds delicious. How long does the chutney stay good in the fridge?
Archana Potdar
Sounds good
Archana Potdar
Sounds good
Raks anand
Maximum 2 days
Vinis Cuisine
yummy chuntney 🙂 love your photos as usual. kadai looks cute 🙂
Sreedevi S Viswanathan
Shall I use tamarind instead of tomato?
Raks anand
You can, but recommended tomato
Swathi H M
Hey I tried it.. It tastes awesome loved it 🙂
AD
looks awesome.. will try today
Venkatachalam Ganapathy
I tried this recipe this morning
I liked the taste
Unknown
Hai mam thanks for every receipe you made expecially recent Kara chutney was amazing so nice
G. Jothi
Tried this Kara chutney raks. It tasted awesome hotel style taste. Thanks for this recipe
Raks Anand
Thank you so much 🙂
Latha
Hi, the chutney looks great. Slightly different from what I make.
Where and when should we add green chillies?
Thank you
Raks Anand
Think I missed to mention 🙂 Sorry about that, it is added along onion, tomato.