Kerala Kadala Curry Recipe
Kadala curry is a chickpea curry cooked in a base of roasted coconut and spices. A popular dish from Kerala, it is served with puttu, idiyappam, or appam for breakfast
Ingredients
- 1 cup kadala chana or chickpeas
- 3/4 cup grated coconut thawed, if frozen
- 4-5 dry red chillies adjust to taste
- 4 tablespoons coriander seeds
- 1/2 cup sliced shallots or red onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
For Tempering:
- 2 teaspoons coconut oil
- 2 tabespoons sliced shallots or red onion
- A few curry leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon black mustard seeds
Instructions
- Wash and soak 1 cup kadala or chickpeas overnight or atleast hours
- Pressure cook the soaked chickpeas for 10 minutes on high in an electric pressure cooker or for 4-5 whistles (12 minutes or so) in a stove-top one. Set aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons coconut oil in a pan (cast iron or non stick works best) and add 4 tablespoons coriander seeds and 3/4 cup grated coconut
- Roast in medium heat stirring continuously for about 4-5 minutes or until the seeds turn fragrant and start to pop here and there. The coconut needs to turn a dark golden brown and quite crisp
- Add 4-5 dry red chillies and roast for another minute or two
- Turn off heat and add the 1/2 cup sliced shallots, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 tsp cumin powder, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- Mix everything in the residual heat and leave to cool completely
- Once cool, grind the spice-coconut mix with water to a smooth paste
- To temper, heat 2 teaspoons coconut oil in the same pan used for roasting spices
- Add 1/4 teaspoon black mustard seeds, and when they pop, add the 2 tabespoons sliced shallots along with A few curry leaves.
- When the shallots turn light brown, add the ground spice paste along with the cooked chickpeas
- Stir everything well and add some water if needed, to adjust consistency
- Bring to boil, add salt
- When you have your desired consistency, turn off heat and let it sit for an hour or two, if you can
- Serve hot
Notes
- When you end up making kadala curry as often as I do, you tend to take shortcuts, use simpler steps, or just cut corners, if you will
- The easiest thing to do to simplify this recipe is to use coriander powder instead of seeds and chilli powder instead of dry red chillies. Roasting time goes down to almost half and you do need to take care to not burn the spice powders since they are delicate. Use low heat and stir frequently
- Another method my mum uses to simplify this recipe is to cook the chickpeas along with the ground spice paste. Then you temper and are done with it. While this works beautifully for her, I find the chickpeas don't cook very well when I do this so I follow the steps as outlined above for near-perfect results every time
- Don't add too much water while grinding the coconut-spice mixture. You can always add more water later with the chickpeas which is better than cooking down a too-watery gravy
- Coriander leaves are welcome to be used as a garnish, just know that it's not usually done in Kerala for kadala curry