Karuveppilai kuzhambu is a south Indian tamarind based gravy with ground curry leaves added to it. Learn how to make south Indian karuveppilai kuzhambu with step by step pictures, video.

Curry leaves kuzhambu is best had with steamed rice, sesame oil or ghee. Goes well with idli dosai too.
Karuveppilai kuzhambu is very tasty and healthy, easy to make too😎! We make it similar to the vatha kuzhambu that is usually made.
But grinding curry leaves and adding to it makes the difference. Just like this kuzhambu,only ground curry leaves make the difference😉.
This can be made in bulk and keep refrigerated and use for a week. Tastes great as it gets old 😉
As always, my mom is queen👸🏻 of making kuzhambus. It will be so flavorful, perfectly balanced and the best part is she feeds us with her own hands or the least mixes with hands and gives to us.
That much spoilt we were 😆. I am so glad I learnt it from her!
Ingredients
- Curry leaves - Karuveppilai in Tamil, the star ingredient in the gravy. Make sure to use fresh ones, then only it will be flavorful. My mom says more than kozhundhu karuveppilai (young tender ones) only older ones have flavor when it comes to this.
- Onion - We only make this kuzhambu with Small onion. If we are time pressed or low in stock, we use chopped small onions. Otherwise of lots whole small onion works too. If using large ones, just use one finely chopped.
- Garlic - Adds so much flavor to the kuzhambu. Same as above, depending on the situation, we use less chopped garlic or more whole cloves.
- Sambar powder - We use our sambar powder for all kind of our south Indian lunch - poriyal, kootu, poricha kuzhambu, sambar, vatha kuzhambu. Check recipe card for link and notes for alternates.
- Jaggery - Add very very less, so that you won't have a distinct sweet taste but nicely balances all together.
Check recipe card for full list.
Step by step method
- Wash curry leaves and grind it with little water (¼ cup) to a smooth paste.
2. Extract tamarind juice from tamarind by soaking it in hot water for 20 mins.
Mash tamarind well with hands after 20 mins and filter through metal strainer.
Repeat with little more water to extract tamarind juice. Total measurement - 2 & ½ cups cups.
Make karuveppilai kuzhambu
1. Heat kadai with oil and add all the tempering items in order and fry till golden colour. After that, add onion and saute till translucent. I used my Kalchatti here.
2. Follow it by adding garlic. Continue frying until garlic and onion turn golden here and there. Pour in tamarind extract.
3. After that, add ground curry leaves (adjust water - ½ cup), turmeric, salt, sambar powder (See notes for alternates for sambar powder).
4. Mix to boil in medium flame. It takes 15 minutes roughly. Depending on spice powder you use this time may change.
5. Drop jaggery lastly, mix and give a boil. Switch off stove.
Karuveppilai kuzhambu gets thick as it cools.
Enjoy with hot rice and a mild side dish. Stays good for a week in fridge if handled properly.
My notes
How I extract tamarind juice easily:
- I usually keep the tamarind in a small bowl with little water inside pressure cooker along with rice. I cook rice in pressure cooker (pot in pot method) so cover rice with a plate and place this bowl over it. If I make kootu, I will also alternately keep this small bowl in middle of dal for kootu I keep in separator bowls. Like below example.
- This way we can easily separate juice from the fibre in no time! I learnt this from my MIL, she always does this everyday basis for sambar or kuzhambu. Try this and do let me know if it was helpful for you 😃
Spice powder
We have this in bulk for year's use and add it to all sorts of south Indian cooking right from poriyal, kootu, poricha kuzhambu, vatha kuzhambu, sambar etc. It's like an universal curry powder I will say.
I am sure many of the Tamil homes does this. In case you want to use readymade, you can use aachi or sakthi sambar powder which is close to ours. Though it is called sambar powder, trust me, it can be used to many dishes.
What if you don't have any of this? Just replace with 2 teaspoon red chilli powder and 1 teaspoon coriander seeds powder for this recipe. But thickening will take a while. So you can add ½ teaspoon of rice flour dissolved in 1 tablespoon water and add to fasten the process.
Fine tunes:
My mom adds a dash of black pepper powder along with jaggery for extra zing.
How to temper properly?
Add the tempering items only when oil is hot. First methi seeds, followed by mustard. Mustard should crackle after which you should add dals and roast it golden in low flame. Lastly add cumin and let it crackle.
Top tip
- If you do not add enough tamarind, salt and spices in this, the curry leaves may smell raw in the gravy. So make sure to balance and boil well.
- My tamarind is pudhu puli (white tamarind) and it came around 30 grams.
Recipe card
Karuveppilai kuzhambu recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Tamarind lemon sized
- ½ cup Curry leaves tightly packed
- 2 tablespoon Sambar powder measure heaped
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric
- 7 Small onion Finely chopped or 20 whole
- 12 flakes Garlic finely chopped or 20 cloves
- Salt as needed
- ½ teaspoon Jaggery
- ½ teaspoon Black pepper powder Optional
To temper:
- 3 tablespoon Sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon Fenugreek seeds vendhayam
- ½ teaspoon Mustard
- 1 teaspoon Urad dal
- 1 teaspoon Toor dal
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- Curry leaves Optional
Instructions
Karuveppilai kuzhambu step by step:
- Wash curry leaves and grind it with little water to a smooth paste.
- Extract tamarind juice from tamarind by soaking it in hot water for 20 mins.
- Mash tamarind well with hands after 20 mins and filter through metal strainer.
- Repeat with little more water to extract tamarind juice. Total measurement - 2 & ½ cups.
- Heat kadai with oil and add all the tempering items in order and fry till golden colour.
- After that, add onion and saute till translucent. Follow it by adding garlic.
- Continue frying until garlic and onion turn golden here and there.
- Pour in tamarind extract, ground curry leaves (adjust water -½ cup), turmeric, salt, sambar powder (refer notes).
- Mix to boil in medium flame. It may take 15 minutes or more.
- Drop jaggery and pepper powder if adding lastly, mix to give a boil.
- Oil floats on top and gets thicker as it cools.
Video
Notes
- Depending upon the sambar powder you use, the thickening time may vary.
- We use sambar powder for all, it is like my universal spice powder for all. So if you don't have you can use aachi or sakthi sambar powder too.
- Add ½ teaspoon of rice flour dissolved in little water to thicken fast. But as we are using curry leaves ground, there will not be a problem.
Laavanya
That looks soo tempting.. i love karivepilai kuzhambu but it has been a while since i made it.
Gita
Lovely photos Raji...I have to try out yur kuzambu for lunch today 🙂
Ashwini
That looks mouthwatering..Lovely photos..
sowmya
sounds interesting...have lot of curry leaves..will make it tommorow..
Prathibha
That is something new for me dear...
looks great..loved the fresh look of curry leaves...
Priya
I have already prepared similar with curry leaves, kuzhambu looks divine yaa!
Trupti
looks delicious & mouthwatering.
Trupti
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Sailaja
looking good...i too have made check my site for variation
Mahimaa's kitchen
yummy kozhambu... i love it.
Aysha
I love this dish...Looking very tempting!!!
Ann
WOOOHOO! On of my fav from my mom cooking , you pic looks awesome and hummm I can smell that aroma!
A2Z Vegetarian Cuisine
That looks so yummmmmyyyyy...& mouthwatering..+ so easy to make..goes right in my recipe book.
Home Cooked Oriya Food
looks yummy!
Parita
Heavenly, i have never made curry only using curry leaves as the base, so interesting! will try once for sure!
Uma
Wow, never made this before. Looks so aromatic and tempting!! Yum 🙂
Superchef
i'll end up using my entire months grocery bill to buy those many curry leaves here!! 😀 LOL..but definitely delicious looking curry.
LG
umm...kozhambu packed with nutritive values of Curry leaves..looks tempting Raks
Kalai
Looks so tempting! Will have to try this next time I made idli maavu. 🙂
notyet100
This is new for me,..looks yummy,..
Nags
aha! nice one. i have tons of fresh curry leaves from a recent visit to lil india!
Varsha Vipins
aww..am sure I'll love it cos am nuts abt curry leaves...The kuzhambu looks soo soo good Raks..:)
Priti
Ok so this will be my next thing to try...looks gud..inbtw made the podi gal...it's gud...eating with everything 😉
Chitra
I like this kuzhambu prepared by aunty..i never tried by my own..have to try once:)
rekhas kitchen
mmmmmmm I can smell that aroma from here so tempting and those pic.s are very inviting yum yum.
Sanghi
I love curry leaf thokku.. looks same with use of tamarind. Will surely try rekha!
Hari Chandana
sounds too good.. looks very tempting.. wonderful clicks 🙂
Valarmathi
Wonderful recipe. Nice click.
Sushma Mallya
First time visit to your blog and that looks just yummy .....especially with the ground curry leaves...love the aroma of curry leaves.
Mangala Bhat
Wow! very tempting recipe ! Lovely photos !
sriharivatsan
Thatz an amazing click Raji..I do in a different way, grinding tamarind along with curry leaves and never added onions..Will try your version this weekend for sure and will let you know..
My Experiments with Cooking
yumm o yumm! I like the last pic best. I bet it is very nutritional too right?
Doloncookbook
Picture looks great & will try it , since i love flavour of curry leave ...Thanks for sharing dear .
Viki's Kitchen
curry leaf kuzhambu sounds healthy.Very new variety of kuzhambu.... must to try.
Kitchen Flavours
Very new to me....love the aromatic flavour of curry leaf in that kuzhambu.....Looks drool worthy....
vidhas
I love this kulambhu Raji. I used to do in a different war. Yours looks yum!! Awesome clicks.
Vidya
Kariveppilai kuzhambu looks heavenly. Mouthwatering. We love to have it just with rice and ghee. You're right, it tastes even better the next day.
sriharivatsan
I tried your method on sat Raji..It was yummy, even my toddler had that..Tx ma.
AnuSriram
Wow.. thats lovely! Yummy recipe!
Anupama
Love that pic of Kuzhambu. I am also a great fan of Paruppu Podi. Cannot have enough of it.
Yasmeen
Tempting shot,love the generous use of curry leaves,sounds yum!
Anu
First time to your blog.. You got a very nice blog and interesting recipes. Kuzambu looks mouthwatering. It's a very different dish will have to try this next time...
Deepa
Rak! You rock. I have fallen in love with your blog. 🙂
Hema
I tried this one raks.. it was wonderful.. visit my space @ http://salt2taste.blogspot.com/2010/10/kariveppilai-kuzhambu.html
Chitra
Hi! Saw ur site in foodgawker.com
Very impressive.I tried curry leaves kulambu.It came out well.Planning to post this recipe in my blog too.Do visit my site if u find time
http://chitrascuisine.blogspot.com/
Vishku
Hi,
It looks yummy Will try it and thanks for the notes it helps a lot
Poornima
Made this today. Excellent kuzhambu. Thanks for the detailed post. I have made a few of your recipes with great success.
Chandra's
awesome one. I loved this recipe. Great post and keep posting these kinda of recipe for bachelors like to try.
Chandra's
Amazing recipe, cooked it last night.
Unknown
Nice recipe and it turned out to be a hit!!!!
Thanks a lot
Serene Lee
hi raks, thk u for the great recipies. as am the beginner in cooking i always used to refer ur websites. i tried this curry leaf kulambu today and it was not thick. so wat i should do for thicking the kulambu. even for smabar or other gravys if it has become watery wat v should do for making it thicker. is there any other ideas.. pls give some tips on this..
regards, serene lee.
RAKS KITCHEN
Use water and sambar powder accordingly. Try using less water and bit more sambar powder.
Sarada Subramaniam
Hi
I made this kuzhambu for lunch..the taste was very good but the colour was not like yours,it was more towards green...
Keyur Parikh
Does this kuzhambu have smooth texture or is it lumpy?
Thanks.
Raks anand
With Smooth ground curry leaves
Jane
Tried this yesterday for Dinner. Came out well. Tasted good with Chapathi. Thanks for the recipe. My husband liked it a lot!
Neeru
Can I make it with dry curry leaves?
Bindhu Maria
I enjoy eating curry leaves. coz it helps grow hair.... and taste cum out well.
Bindhu Maria
I tried preparing and its cum so yummy. and adding curry leaves to our daily meals help grow hair and thick.......... Try enjoying
Nikki
superb recipe...tried out today...it came out gr8
KRUPA NAGARAJAN
Hi..did you mean sesame oil or sesame seeds under the tempering table?
Raks Kitchen
Oil, sorry will update. Thanks.
Supriya
Tried this today and it came out well. It looked just like in the picture.
In the 'To temper' table, it says toor dal. Did you mean chana dal /kadala paruppu? Because that's what we usually use to temper.
Raks Anand
Thank you 🙂 We use toor dal for such kuzhambu and puli charu 🙂