Keerai Kuzhambu / Keerai Puli Kuzhambu, a spicy  and delicious tamarind based curry with spinach puree. It's one of my favourite curries and often make it for our lunch long with steamed rice and an accompaniment. 

This curry preparation is more or less similar to the puli kuzhambu/kara kuzhambu, but the addition of spinach puree gives a unique taste and it's indeed finger licking delicious.

 

In our home, ST is more fond of spicy masala food hence the keerai kootu and keerai kadaiyal are some of his least favourite dishes and claim them as very bland.  In general, most of the South Indian dishes made with spinach are very mild in terms of flavor and spices. 

So he prefers this keerai kuzhambu more than any other dishes made with spinach! if you're one of the person who likes your food as spicy and flavorful, then this curry is definitely for you !

Keerai Kuzhambu | Keerai Puli Kuzhambu

Preparation Time : 20 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Keerai Kuzhambu,Spinach Puli Kuzhambu, Keerai Puli Kuzhambu Keerai Kuzhambu / Keerai Puli Kuzhambu, a spicy and delicious tamarind based curry with spinach puree.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Spinach - 1 cup (tightly packed)

Tamarind - a gooseberry size
Pearl onion - 4
Garlic - 8 pods
Tomato(small) - 1 
Curry leaves - few
Fenugreek Seed - 1/2 tsp
Red Chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Sambar powder - 2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - 1& 1/2 tbsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Jaggery - a small piece

Procedure

First measure and take the spinach. Heat a pot of water and blanch the spinach. Just when it starts to shrink, remove from the hot water and run it under cool water & keep it aside.

Peel the onion & garlic and chop them roughly into pieces and also tomato into small pieces. Soak the tamarind in a 1/2 cup of water for 20 mins. Heat the oil in a thick bottomed pan.

Add the fenugreek seed, mustard & urad dal, let the mustard splutter, then add the onion, garlic and curry leaves.Saute till the onions become translucent.

Then add the tomatoes and give a quick stir. Next keep the flame in low and then add the spices(turmeric, red chili & sambar powder) and salt ,saute them in the oil for few mins.

Extract the tamarind juice from the soaked tamarind and add into it. Cover it with lid and cook till the curry is little thick.

In the meantime, puree the blanched spinach and add it into the curry.

Mix it well and then finally add a piece of jaggery. Boil the curry till the oil separates on the sides.

Tasty Keerai Kuzhambu is ready ! Serve it with steamed rice and your favorite curry. We had it along with potato podimas, beetroot poriyal and tempered toor dal.

Related : How to make Keerai Kootu

Notes:

• Keep the flame in low when adding the spices, otherwise it will be burnt easily.
• Adding the spices in the oil gives enhanced flavor to the kuzhambu.
• Sambar powder that i have used here is home made and haven't had any chilies in it. If your sambar powder has chili in it, reduce the chili powder and adjust to your taste.
• Boil the curry till the consistency you prefer.

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Vadai Mor Kuzhambu | Buttermilk Curry with Masala Vada

Vadai Mor Kuzhambu, a delicious South Indian style buttermilk curry with masala vadai soaked in it. Mor Kuzhambu is a traditional South Indian buttermilk curry made with varieties of vegetables like okra, ash gourd and many more. 

But in our home, while we grew up, this vadai mor kuzhambu is the only variation that Amma used to make and I absolutely loved it back then and still do ! So far I have never made mor kuzhambu without masala vadai whether the curry has vegetables or not. 

If you haven't tried mor kuzhambu with vadai, then do give it a try ! It's absolutely delicious with steaming hot rice ! 

Can I use urad dal vadai / ulundu vadai / medhu vada in this curry?

Yes, you can ! I have seen many recipes using urad dal vada. But in our home we only used masala vadai.  So I'm more inclined to masala vada than the urad dal vada. 

Can I use buttermilk instead of curd ? 

Even though the curry name has buttermilk in it(Mor means buttermilk in tamil), it's usually made with thick curd whisked into thin buttermilk. But if you already have buttermilk, you can very well use that instead of curd.

Vadai Mor Kuzhambu

Preparation Time : 1 hr | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Vadai Mor kuzhambu, Buttermilk curry with masala vada, Paruppu vadai Mor kuzhambu Vadai Mor Kuzhambu, a delicious South Indian style buttermilk curry with masala vadai soaked in it.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Thick Curd - 1 cup

Onion (sliced ) - 2 tbsp

Tomato - 1/2 

Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp

Salt - to taste 

Masala vadai - 8

To Grind 

Toor dal - 2 tsp

Coconut - 3 tbsp

Cumin seed - 1/2 tsp

Red chili - 4 (adjust to your taste)

To Temper 

Coconut oil - 2 tsp

Fenugreek seed - 1/4 tsp

Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves - few  

Procedure

Soak the toor dal in 1/2 cup of water for 1 hr. Then add the soaked dal and other ingredients listed under "To Grind" into a mixie/ blender jar and grind into smooth paste by adding the needed water and set aside until use.

Heat a pan, add the coconut oil and temper the ingredients listed under "To Temper" one by one and then add the sliced onions & saute till the onions are translucent. 

Next add the roughly chopped tomatoes and give a quick stir. Then add 1 cup of water. 

Next add the dal-coconut paste and turmeric powder. Mix it well and then add the enough salt for the curry.

Bring into boil and then simmer the curry for a few mins until it turns slightly thick. Take the curd in a bowl and whisk it smoothly without any lumps. 

Keep the heat in the lowest possible setting and add the whisked curd, give a quick mix  and switch off the flame. 

Transfer the curry into a another bowl and add the masala vada. Let it soak for 5-10 mins and it's ready to serve. 

Tasty Vadai Mor Kuzhambu is ready to serve . Serve it with hot rice ! 

Related : How to make Crispy Masala Vada 

Notes:

• Adding water into the kadai before adding the coconut masala helps to avoid the masala sticking to the bottom of the pan.
• Because of toor dal, the curry tends to thicken quickly so adding enough water ahead is essential. 
• Don't add the dal more than the mentioned quantity otherwise the curry would be so thick.
• Instead of red chili , you can use green chili too for vibrant yellow color curry

 

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Vadai Kulambu, a spicy and tasty tamarind based curry from South India. Masala Vadai kulambu is nothing but a puli kulambu/kara kulambu with masala vadai in it. The masala vadai added in the kulambu gives great flavor to the kulambu in addition the soaked vadai also tastes awesome. Both puli kulambu and vadai on its own are great but together it's amazing ! 

It's one of my go to kulambu recipe when i'm out of vegetables or bored of vegetables. Besides in our family we like to add this kulambu to the rice and keep the vadai as side for our lunch, so no need to make extra poriyal or sides as mandatory :-) 

Back in days, in our home town, Tiruneveli, around noon, a grandma used to sell vadai. So people in our area who're looking for a change in their routine cooking would wait for her to buy some vadai to add it in the puli kulambu or mor kulambu. How simple is that, right?

Masala Vadai or Paruppu Vadai 

In this kulambu, both masala vadai and paruppu vadai can be added. Masala vadai is usually made from split yellow peas and more spices whereas paruppu vadai is made from chana dal (gram dal)with less spices. Though it has slight variations, in many places, the names are easily interchangeable so it's up to you which vada you prefer in the kulambu 

Here in today's recipe, i have used masala vadai which is more crispier than the  paruppu vadai and also it's my favorite. 

Related: How to make masala vadai/Pattani paruppu vadai

Consistency of the Curry / Kulambu

While making the curry for vadai kulambu, make sure that the curry is little more watery than the preferred consistency of the curry . Because after adding the vadai, it will absorb a bit of curry so it eventually thicken after a while. 

Otherwise you end up with kootu like consistency instead of curry. Lesson learnt from personal experience :-)

Related: How to make Pakoda kulambu 

Vegetables 

Usually while making curry for vadai kulambu, i prefer to avoid any vegetables, only made with some pearl onions and garlic. But if you prefer, you can add drumsticks, it will add more flavor to the curry.

Serving Suggestions

Usually i add only a half of the vadai into the kulambu and serve the rest as it is as sides for more variations.   

Though i prefer to make this curry for simple cooking, sometimes adding a poriyal/veggies and dessert would make this simple dish into delicious meal platter  !! 

Rice with vadai kulambu, rasam, beans poriyal & gulab jamun.

 

Vadai Kulambu | Masala Vadai Kuzhambu

Preparation Time : 1 hr | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Masala Vadai Kulambu, Vadai Kuzhambu, Vadai Kulambu Vadai Kulambu, a spicy and tasty tamarind based curry from South India. Vadai kulambu is nothing but a puli kulambu/kara kulambu with masala vadai in it.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Garlic - 4 cloves

Onion - 1/4

Tomato -1(small)

Tamarind - small gooseberry size

Mustard & urad dal- 1/4 tsp

Fenugreek seed - 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Salt - to taste

Red chili powder -1/2 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 & 1/2 tsp 

Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Masala Vadai - 6 

To grind

Grated coconut - 3 tbsp

Peal onion - 2 

Garlic pods - 1 cloves

Cumin seed- 1/2 tsp

Procedure

Soak the tamarind in a 1/2 cup of water for 20 mins, peel the onion & garlic and chop them roughly into pieces, tomato into small pieces. Heat the oil in a kadai, add fenugreek seed, mustard & urad dal, let the mustard splutter, then add the onion,garlic and curry leaves.Saute the garlic in oil for 2-3 mins. 

Add the tomatoes, give a quick mix & keep the flame in low. Then add the spices(turmeric, red chili & coriander powder),saute them in the oil for few mins. Make sure to not get burnt.

Extract the tamarind juice from the soaked tamarind and add into kadai.Put all the ingredients listed under "To grind" and grind into smooth paste by adding couple of tbsp of water. 

Add the coconut paste into kadai. Next add the salt and bring into boil. 

Let it boil until the raw smell goes off and oil floats on the top. Switch off the flame and add the vadai. Let it soak for few mins before serving

Related: How to make masala vadai

Tasty Vadai Kuzhambu is ready to serve. Serve it with steamed rice. 

Related: South Indian Kulambu Varieties

Notes: 

• The vadai has already salt in it, so be careful while adding salt in the kulambu
• Sesame oil gives great flavor to this kulambu, so if you have it in stock, use the sesame oil instead of flavorless oil

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Karuveppilai Kuzhambu | Curry leaves Kulambu

Karuveppilai Kuzhambu, a spicy, tangy and delicious  tamarind based curry with curry leaves as the main ingredient. Curry leaves is known as "Karuveppilai in tamil and it's extensively used in south indian cooking and health care especially for hair growth. Eating a few raw curry leaves daily would benefit your hair growth in a tremendous way and also it's believed to postpone the greying of hair.  

Ok, now coming to the recipe, I like curry leaves flavor a lot and use them daily in tempering sambar, chutney and all side dishes. Apart from that, whenever I have excess curry leaves, I would make curry leaves chutney or podi to store. 

Curry leaves podi makes an excellent side dish for idli and dosa and comes handy on a busy day when I'm pressed for time in the early morning. This Curry leaves kulambu is my recent favorite and I tried it for the first time a couple of months back only and already made it for a handful of times. It's so flavorful and tastes great with hot rice and drizzle of ghee.  Now let's check out how to make this yummy curry leaves curry.

Karuveppilai Kuzhambu

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 30 mins | Serves : 4 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Karuveppilai,Curry leaves, Kuzhambu,Curry,Gravy,Karuveppilai Kulambu,Curry leaves Kuzhambu Karuveppilai Kuzhambu, a spicy, tangy and delicious tamarind based curry with curry leaves as the main ingredient. Curry leaves is known as "Karuveppilai in tamil and it's extensively used in south indian cooking.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Tamarind - a small lemon size 

Garlic - 10 

Red chili powder - 3/4 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

To Temper

Oil - 1 & 1/2 tbsp

Mustard and Urad dal - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - few

To roast &  grind

Curry leaves - 1/2 cup(tightly packed)

Onion -1/2

Tomato - 1(small)

Garlic - 4 

Cumin seed -1/2 tsp

Fenugreek seed - 1/4 tsp

Coconut - 1/4 cup 

Oil - 1/2 tsp

Procedure

First let's roast and grind the masala. Chop the onions and tomato into small pieces and keep everything for roast to ready. Heat the kadai with 1/2 tsp of oil, add the fenugreek and cumin seed, let it splutter and then add the onion and garlic. Saute till the onions are translucent.

Next add the curry leaves and saute till it shrinks and then add the tomatoes and coconut. Cook till the tomatoes are soft and let it cool a bit.

Soak the tamarind in 1 cup of water for 30 mins. Then transfer the roasted ingredients into mixie jar and grind into smooth paste by adding water little by little.

In an another kadai, heat the oil for tempering and then temper the ingredients listed under "To Temper" and then add the garlic and the curry leaves paste.

Extract the juice from the soaked tamarind and add into the kadai. Next add the spices(turmeric, red chili and coriander powder) and salt. Mix it well. Adjust the consistency of the kuzhambu by adding more or less of water by your liking.

Let it comes to boil and simmer it until the oil floats on the top.

Tasty Karuvepillai Kuzhambu is ready. 

Related: How to make Curry leaves Podi

For more curries and veggies, check out my collections

Related: How to make Curry leaves Chutney

Notes:

• Depends on how vibrant the curry leaves are, the kuzhambu color changes.
• Adjust the spice level according to your taste. The given quantity is on little spicer side.
• Make sure to cook the curry till the oil floats on the top for great taste
• 

 

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Poondu Kuzhambu, a delicious tamarind based curry made with garlic. It's one of my favorite kuzhambu/curry to make when there are no veggies at home or the veggies that i have in the refrigerator are not suitable for any particular curry. The garlic alone will make the kuzhambu/curry so flavorful and tastes so great with hot rice. In today's recipe, i have used coconut masala in the curry for more flavor and taste. If you're looking for curry without any coconut, do check out this onion garlic kulambu.  Jump To Recipe

I have had this post in drafts for a couple of days and unable to add recipe schema to my post because of the new change in the blogger interface . Recipe schema is nothing but a piece of code recommended by Google to show rich search results. I have been thinking for a while to switch from blogger to wordpress but out of convenience, i'm stick to the blogger. But the latest update on the new interface really made me  reconsider my choice here.

To add a recipe schema, instead of using any third party plugins, i have been adding all the required property values on my own in every post. But now with the new interface update, when switching from html to compose editor, all the manually added content in html editor has vanished. Without a recipe schema, i don't want to publish the post. So raised the issue and also asked for help in the community to figure this out. Still waiting for a response.

In the mean time, i have switched back to the old interface for posting this recipe. Hopefully before they remove the old interface completely, i will figure this out. For all non-bloggers, it may seem too technical, sorry for that. Now let's check out how to make this delicious poondu/garlic kuzhambu

Poondu Kuzhambu | Garlic Kulambu with Coconut

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Poondu Kuzhambu, Garlic Kulambu,Garlic kulambu with coconut,kara kuzhambu, puli kulambu Poondu Kuzhambu, a delicious tamarind based curry made with garlic.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Garlic - 8 to 10 cloves

Pearl onion - 1

Tomato -1(small)

Tamarind - small gooseberry size

Mustard & urad dal- 1/4 tsp

Fenugreek seed - 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Salt - to taste

Red chili powder -1/2 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 & 1/2 tsp 

Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

To grind

Grated coconut - 3 tbsp

Peal onion - 2 

Garlic pods - 1 cloves

Cumin seed- 1 tsp

Procedure

Soak the tamarind in a 1/2 cup of water for 20 mins, peel the onion & garlic and chop them roughly into pieces, tomato into small pieces.  Put all the ingredients listed under "To grind" and grind into smooth paste by adding couple of tbsp of water and keep it ready.

Heat the oil in a kadai, add fenugreek seed, mustard & urad dal, let the mustard splutter, then add the onion,garlic and curry leaves.Saute the garlic in oil for 2-3 mins. 

Next keep the flame in low and then add the spices(turmeric, red chili & coriander powder),saute them in the oil for few mins. Make sure to not get burnt.

Then add the tomatoes, give a quick mix. Next add the coconut paste and salt and mix it all well together

Extract the tamarind juice from the soaked tamarind and add into kadai and add more water to your preferred consistency.

Let it boil until the raw smell goes off and oil floats on the top. Switch off the flame.

Delicious Poondu Kuzhambu is ready. We had with rice and spinach kootu. 

Related:How to make poondu kulambu/ garlic curry without coconut

For more curries and veggies, check out here 

Notes:

• Keep the flame in low when adding the spices, otherwise it will be burnt easily.
• Adding spices in the oil and sauteing gives "Arachivitta(freshly ground spice) Kuzhambu" effect.
• Adding the spices in the oil gives enhanced flavor to the kuzhambu.
• Boil the curry till the consistency you prefer.

Continue Reading »