Milagu poondu kuzhambu or pepper garlic gravy is a south Indian gravy served with rice. Step by step pictures post.

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This Pepper garlic gravy recipe was sent to me by a reader Ramya Shankaran.
Thank you for taking time to send it Ramya. I tried today and loved it. In fact, any tangy spicy kuzhambu is my kind of lunch, I can have it for a week.
As Vj and Aj are not fan of tangy kuzhambu I rarely make. Today I made this along with cabbage kootu and thought of posting too.
This has pepper in it, so good very flavorful along with garlic.
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Recipe card
Milagu poondu kuzhambu or pepper garlic gravy
Ingredients
- ¼ cup Small onion
- 1 tablespoon Tamarind Gooseberry size
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric
- ½ teaspoon Jaggery Optional
- Salt
To sautee and grind
- 2 teaspoon Black pepper
- 4 Red chilli
- ¼ cup Garlic
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 1 Onion
- 1 Tomato
- 3 Curry leaves sprig
To temper
- 1 tablespoon Sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon Fenugreek seeds vendhayam
- ½ teaspoon Mustard
- 1 Curry leaves sprig Optional
Instructions
- In a kadai, heat a teaspoon of oil firstly and add pepper, red chilli first, give it a stir and then jeera and garlic. Fry for a minute
- Add onion, tomato, curry leaves and fry for 2 minutes in medium flame.
- Option: If you like whole garlic in your kuzhambu, you can reserve ¾th garlic and sautee just ¼th of the garlic.
- Cool down and grind to a paste. Add little water if needed.
- Extract tamarind pulp by soaking it in hot water for 30 mins, with a cup of water.
- Heat oil, temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table in order.
- Add peeled onion and fry till golden. Add whole garlic if you have reserved in first step.
- Add tamarind pulp, salt, turmeric, jaggery and boil for 2 minutes.
- Add ground paste and add more water (1 & ½ cups) and mix well.
- Boil until thick (Roughly 5 minutes) and transfer to the serving bowl.
Notes
- ¼ cup garlic holds around 15- 18 garlic flakes. Don’t think its too much and will over power the gravy, it will be subtle only.
Step by step
- To make milagu poondu kuzhambu, in a kadai, heat a teaspoon of oil firstly and add pepper, red chilli first, give it a stir and then jeera and garlic.
- Fry for a minute and then add onion, tomato, curry leaves and fry for 2 minutes in medium flame. Option : If you like whole garlic in your kuzhambu, you can reserve ¾th garlic and sautee just ¼th of the garlic.
- Cool down and grind to a paste. Add little water if needed. Extract tamarind pulp by soaking it in hot water for 30 mins, with a cup of water.
- Secondly, heat oil, temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table in order. Add peeled onion and fry till golden. Then add whole garlic if you have reserved in first step.
- After that pour tamarind pulp, salt, turmeric, jaggery and boil for 2 minutes. In goes the ground paste finally and add more water (1 & ½ cups) and mix well.
- Boil until thick (Roughly 5 minutes) and transfer to the serving bowl.
Serve milagu poondu kuzhambu with rice and any mild kootu such as cabbage kootu, poriyal. Delicious, tangy and flavorful kuzhambu for rice.
vishvaajit
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nano1515
Can u suggest milagu kozhambu without onion garlic.
Sayantani
am a big fan of kuzhambu and will try this recipe asap.
Sayantani
am a big fan of kuzhambu and will try this recipe asap.
Raks anand
http://www.rakskitchen.net/2013/06/easy-pepper-kuzhambu-recipe-milagu.html
sujatha thamby
Raks,
Tried this kulambu today....YUMMY!!!!
Thanks
Lakshmi Palaniappan
Hi
I tried this kuzhambu it tasted awesome! Thanks for the recipe
Shubha Satish
Looks lovely, will try it. Any tip on peeling small onions. I find it very time consuming.
Raks anand
You can add in water to peel it easily (After cutting the top and tail)
Hema
This kuzhambu is getting ready at my home as I type this... Looks inviting and delicious! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Rahulan Rajan
I tried this once and my flatmates and I loved it. We make this in our apartment atleast once every two weeks.
Mumtaz Begum
Thank you for this. Awesome with hot rice.
Vijeyalakshmi
Most simple and easiest recipe ever. Thanks.
Raks Anand
Thanks a lot