Nellikai podi recipe

Nellikai podi is a semi dry recipe for mixing with rice and also as a side dish like thogayal, but in dry form. Very tasty and nutritious too.

You can have it as accompaniment for rice or mix with it and have. It is not a long time condiment, but you can make small batch when in season and consume for a week.

This was inspired by my coriander leaves podi recipe on this site, and pairs well with this Curd rice recipe.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Variations
• Storage
• Top tip
• Recipe card

Ingredients

These are the few things the podi needs.

• Nellikai (Indian gooseberry- large variety)
• Red chillies
• Urad dal
• Asafoetida
• Tamarind
• Jaggery

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Wash, pat dry the gooseberries firstly. Chop nellikai roughly. Check out how to chop if you are a beginner.

2. Take a pan and add oil to it, followed by red chilli, asafoetida and urad dal.

3. Roast thoroughly in medium flame until the urad dal turns deep red in color.

4. After that, add coconut and roast until it turns aromatic and golden.

5. Once done, transfer to a plate and cool down.

6. Take a mixie and powder asafoetida, salt, red chillies, tamarind (and jaggery if adding) firstly.

7. Secondly add urad dal and gooseberry. Do not grind for long time, do it in small pulses. Few times will be enough to give you a coarse texture.

Transfer to a container and keep refrigerated. You can use it for 5 days comfortably.

Mix with rice, ghee or sesame oil and enjoy. You can have it with curd rice also, tastes really good.

Variations

You can skip coconut but it really balances the sharp taste of nellikai, so balance accordingly.

Storage

Keep the podi always in refrigerator. Use within a week.

Top tip

Do not grind too much or all together. First powder red chilli as mentioned for perfect texture. If you grind for long time it may turn to thogayal (paste).

Recipe card