Thakkali Chutney, a delicious and easy to make chutney with tomatoes as main ingredients. It tastes great with both idli and dosa varieties. In our home, Amma makes thakkali chutney with coconut and everyone at home likes it so much. 

But the recipe that i'm sharing today doesn't have any coconut and it's super special to me because today in this recipe i have used our garden tomatoes. If you've followed me on IG, you might already knew about it. Cooking with the veggies that you've grown gives such a immense pleasure, every first time veggie growers can relate to my joy. 

Around last April we planted a  few slices of tomatoes in a pot for the first time. In the past, we used to grow a few varieties of flowers mainly like roses, marigold and hibiscus and never thought about growing any veggies since we're in an apartment.

But this year, ST did some searching on the internet and came up with few veggies that we can grow easily in a container. One among them is tomatoes. Watching them grow, learning about the plant anatomy and what works or not, all are really interesting in this process. 

Finally after 3 months of planting the seeds, a couple of tomatoes are ready to use today, so i made this delicious tomato chutney as a side for dosa today. It's  even more tastier than usual knowing that the tomatoes are grown by us :-) 

Thakkali Chutney | Tomato Chutney

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Chutney | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Thakkali Chutney,Tomato Chutney, No Coconut Chutney, Indian Chutney,Tamilnadu Chutney, Red Chutney, Restaurant Tomato Chutney Thakkali Chutney, a delicious and easy to make chutney with tomatoes as main ingredients. It tastes great with both idli and dosa varieties.

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

Ingredients
Thakkali/ Tomato - 2
Pearl onion - 3
Red chili - 4
Chana dal - 2 tsp
Garlic - 2 pods
Carrot - 1/4 inch piece
Salt - to taste
Sesame Oil - 1 tsp
To Temper 
Sesame Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - few

Procedure

Peal the onions & garlic. Cut the tomatoes and carrot into small pieces. Heat the pan with oil, add the red chili & chana dal  and roast till they dals are golden brown and keep it aside.

In the same pan, add the onions, carrots & garlic, saute it for 2 mins and then add the tomatoes & salt. 

Saute them for about 2 mins. Cover the kadai with lid and cook till they are soft and let it cool a bit. In the mean time, add the roasted chili & dal in a mixie jar and grind into coarse mixture.

Next add the tomatoes into jar along with the little water(i have used the washed water from the pan) and grind into smooth paste.

Temper the ingredients listed under "To Temper" and add into the chutney. 
Tasty Tomato Chutney is ready. Serve it with idli/dosa. 

For more side dish for idli & dosa, check out my collection.

Notes:

• Sweetness from the carrot helps to balance out the tomato tartness.
• Adding dal gives thickness to the chutney, otherwise the chutney would be runny.
• Sesame oil gives great flavor to the chutney.

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Thakkali Chutney | Charred Tomato Chutney | Chutney recipe

Thakkali Chutney/ Tomato Chutney, a delicious chutney made from the charred tomatoes and a few Indian Spices. It makes an excellent pair with both idli and dosa varieties. In our home, we have been making this chutney for generations without any change in the recipe. 

Amma had learnt this chutney recipe from Aachi(Paternal Grandma) and from her, i have learnt it recently. This chutney can be made with both regular size tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. 

While growing up, I didn't like this chutney at all, there was an incident for my dislike. I think around 8 or 9 old, after had this chutney with idli for breakfast, i threw up like anything, after that incident i was paranoid to give it a try on this chutney(definitely chutney was not the reason for my threw up!), so whenever Amma makes this chutney at home, for me alone she would make some other chutneys.

 Again in my 20s only, I started to like this chutney. Now when I look back into it, I realize how crazy I was then !!! 

Back to the recipe, the charred tomatoes give the smoky flavor to the chutney and that flavor is so unique to this chutney. If you like charred tomato flavor, then definitely give this chutney a try!. Now let's check out on how to make this delicious & flavorful chutney. 

Thakkali Chutney | Tomato Chutney

Preparation Time : 1 hr | Cooking Time : 25 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Chutney | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Thakkali Chutney, Charred Tomato Chutney, Tomato Chutney Thakkali Chutney/ Tomato Chutney, a delicious chutney made from the charred tomatoes and a few Indian Spices.

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

Ingredients
Tomato - 2 
Urad dal(skinned or unskinned) - 1 tsp
Red chili - 2
Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup
Garlic - 1 pod
Salt - to taste
Oil - 1/2 tsp
To Temper
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Pearl onion - 1(finely choppe)
Curry leaves - few

Procedure

Heat a kadai with few drops of oil, add urad dal & red chili and roast till the dal becomes golden brown, remove from the heat and transfer to the plate.

In the same kadai, add grated coconut and garlic, roast till the coconut becomes golden brown, remove from the heat and transfer to the plate to cool.Again in the same kadai, add 1/2 tsp of oil and then add the tomatoes & let it charred. Rotate the tomatoes once in a while till it becomes soft and the skin becomes black here and there and have that smoky flavor.

Let it also cool and then remove the skin. In the mixie jar, add all the ingredients except tomatoes and grind into coarse powder.

Next chop the tomatoes roughly and then add into the mixie jar along with enough salt. Grind them into smooth paste. Heat the oil for tempering and add the mustard, let the mustard crackle.

Then add the urad dal, onion and curry leaves, saute it for 20 secs, then add the chutney and if needed add water as per your liking.Let it comes to boil and then simmer for 5 mins. 

Tasty and flavorful tomato chutney is ready.

Related : How to make Onion Kara Chutney 

Notes:

• While saute the tomatoes, keep the flame in low and it takes minimum 15 minutes to becomes soft, other wise the outer skin easily browned and inner part remains uncooked.
• Instead of skin urad dal, you can use unskinned urad dal also, but the flavor from skin urad dal is quite unique.
• Since all the ingredients are dry roasted for this chutney, it stays well for a day in room temperature even on sunny days. 
  

You can serve this chutney with idli and kal dosai too . Ps: I have taken these pictures on various days

 

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Tomato Soup | Thakkali Soup | Soup Recipe

Tomato Soup, a quick and easy to make soup with tomatoes. Though we don't have the habit of having soup at our home regularly, once in a while, i prepare this tomato soup along with some sandwich or panini.

Yep, that is a combination inspired from panera bread combo menu. As temperature is dropping here now, these combination is our absolute favorite to have it as dinner or as lunch on those cool days.

 
Here in the soup recipe, i haven't use any cream at all and make it as very lighter as per our liking. But if you like rich tomato soup, instead of maida mixture, you can use heavy cream, that will make it as more like restaurant soup.

Tomato Soup

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Soup | Recipe Cuisine: General
Creamy Tomato Soup, Tomato Soup, Easy Tomato Soup Tomato Soup, a quick and easy to make soup with tomatoes, perfect for cold winter nights.

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

Ingredients
Tomato - 4
Garlic - 2
Butter - 1 tbsp
Bay leaf - 1
Maida/All purpose flour - 2 tsp
Milk - 2 tbsp
Beetroot - 1 inch small piece
Pepper powder - to taste
Salt - to taste
Italian seasoning - to taste(optional)

Procedure

Wash and take the tomato, cut a cross on both sides of the tomatoes. Heat a pressure cooker with butter.

Add the garlic and bay leaves ,saute till aromatic. Then add the tomatoes and saute in butter for 1 min.

Then add enough water and small pieces of beetroot(forget to take pic of that),cover the pressure cooker with lid  and cook it for 3 whistle.

Let it cool a bit, then remove the skin of the tomatoes & bay leaf and put it in the blender and grind into smooth paste.

Transfer the tomato puree into the pan along with the leftover cooked water from the tomatoes(if needed add more water at this stage),mix it well. Put it on flame and then add required salt.

Let it bring to boil, in the mean time, mix the maida with milk without any lumps and add into the soup and mix well.

Add pepper powder to taste, mix well. Let it simmer for few more mins and switch off the flame.

That's it, Soothing Tomato Soup is ready. Sprinkle some italian seasoning on top while serving.

Related: How to make Panini Sandwich

Notes:

• Beetroot gives bright color to the soup.
• Maida helps to thicken the soup, so add more or less of maida depends on the thickness you want.
  

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Tomato Rice | Thakkali Satham | Variety Rice

Tomato rice,an easy to make variety rice with tomatoes. As i have already shared the recipe of tomato rice recipe here and here , this recipe is quite different from those recipes,here in this recipe, i have used cooked rice,so it's easy fix for your lunch box and also it's the best way to use the leftover cooked rice.Garlic gives wonderful flavor to this rice and i have prepared this rice a zillon times and it never fails to impress me with exotic flavor even with every simple ingredients. Now let's move on to the recipe.

Thakkali Satham

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Rice | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Cooked Rice - 2 cup
Tomato - 2
Onion - 1(small) 
Green chili - 1
Garlic - 5
Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Chana dal - 1 tbsp
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - few
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste

Procedure

First chop onion,tomato & garlic into small pieces and slit the green chili. Heat a kadai with oil,add mustard & urad dal,let the mustard splutter,then add the chana dal and roast till it turns golden brown.Add onions, garlic & curry leaves and saute till the onions becomes translucent and garlic becomes soft, then add the tomatoes and give a good stir.Add spices(turmeric & red chili powder) & salt . Give a good mix and cook till the tomatoes become mushy and the oil separates on the sides.Switch off the flame.Add the cooked rice and mix well.Finally add the chopped coriander leaves and mix well.That's it , Tomato rice is ready to serve.

Notes:

• Garlic gives great flavor and taste to the rice, so don't reduce the amount of garlic.
• Use well ripen tomatoes for better taste and bright color.
• For more flavor, add 1/2 tsp of garam masala powder along with other spices.
• You can make this rice with leftover rice too.
  

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Tomato Thokku | Thakkali Thokku | Tomato Preserves

Thakkali Thokku, a delicious,spicy and tangy condiment made from the tomatoes. It stays well for days at room temperature or even weeks in the refrigerator. It's one of our family favorites and we love to have it with idly, dosa,chapathi and with curd rice.

Since it stays well at room temperature , i would prefer this to pack this tomato thokku along with chapati/idli on our first day of any trip. The day before the trip itself, I used to prepare this and keep it in the refrigerator, so it comes handy on the early morning trip packing. 
When we were in Hosur, i had prepared this tomato thokku a lot in tomato season. In Hosur farmer's market, when tomatoes were in season, the price would be so cheap,i remember that it was Rs 5 per kg or sometimes 3 kg for 10 Rs. 

At that time, i would make this thokku atleast once in a week and we had it along with all three meals in a day. 
Now,let's see how to make this delicious thokku. For this recipe, i shot a little video for demonstration. Have a look and share your thoughts.

Tomato Thokku | Thakkali Thokku

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Makes : 1 cup 
Recipe Category: Preserves | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Thakkali Thokku, Tomato Thokku, Thokku, Thakkali Urugai, Tomato Pickle Thakkali Thokku, a delicious,spicy and tangy condiment made from the tomatoes. It stays well for days at room temperature or even weeks in the refrigerator.

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

Ingredients
Tomato - 4 
Garlic - 6
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Red chili powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
Jaggery - 1 tsp
Fenugreek powder - 1/4 tsp

Procedure

Cut the tomatoes into small pieces and then peel the garlic.

Cut the garlic into small pieces, put the tomatoes into the mixie jar and grind into smooth paste.

Heat a kadai with oil, add the mustard, let it splutter and then add the garlic.

Add few curry leaves and saute it in oil for one min, then add the tomato puree.

Now add the spices(turmeric & chili powder) and salt.

Give a good mix and then let it boil, once it comes to vigorous boil, keep in medium flame and cover the pan with lid and cook till it becomes thick.Stir in between to avoid sticking at the bottom.

Finally add the jaggery and fenugreek powder and cook till the oil oozes out from it. Switch off flame.Let it cool completely and store in air tight container.

Tasty Tomato thokku is ready to serve.

Related: How to make Mango thokku 

Notes:

• If you have small  garlic pods, then no need to cut,use as it is.
• It stays well for 2 weeks at refrigerator.
• Once it comes to boil, cover the pan with lid, it helps to avoid spluttering.
• If you're plan to preserve for more than a month, then use little extra oil.
• Jaggery helps to balance the sourness and spiceness, so don't skip it.
• Fenugreek seed is roasted and powdered in motor & pestle to make fenugreek powder

 Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#74

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