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Dondakaya Pachadi is a simple, spicy, authentic, and delicious home-style chutney made with Tindora in South India. This is a part of everyday cuisine in many homes in South India and is considered a mouth-watering comfort dish especially when it is served with hot white rice with ghee on top and papad on the side.
Dondakaya in English is called Tindora or Ivy gourd or Tendli in Marathi or Kovakkai in Tamil etc...
Feel free to use the button at the top of the page to go to the recipe directly or the table of contents below to go to any section of the page you want. The recipe card has all the information that is needed to make the recipe perfectly. However, I try to provide as much useful information in the post for the readers who are looking for it.
Chutneys or pickles are an integral part of South Indian Cuisine. If you are not from South India, sometimes you might get confused between the terms chutney and pickle.
Chutney or roti pachadi which can be used synonymously is usually made by cooking and grinding a mix of fresh vegetables, chilies, garlic, and/or some dals or nuts. They are a part of everyday cuisine in many South Indian homes and they usually stay fresh for up to 3 days. Traditionally in the olden days, roti pachadi used to be made using mortar and pestle, hence the name roti pachadi, where roti refers to mortar and pestle.
On the other hand, Pickles are usually made with a lot of oil, spices, salt to preserve them for a few months or even up to a year.
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How to make
Let's see how to make this authentic home-style tindora recipe in a jiffy.
Preparation
- Wash the Dondakaya and Tomatoes thoroughly and chop them into pieces.
- Chop the Tindora into small roundels and dice the tomato into medium size pieces.
- Peel the garlic.
How to make Dondakaya tomato Pachadi
- Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan and add 1 tsp chana dal, 1 tsp urad dal, ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds. Saute them until golden brown for a min or two until you get a nice aroma, Now add peeled garlic cloves and green chilies to saute for a few more seconds until you see the blister marks.
- Now remove this tempering without the oil into a bowl and let it cool down. Once it is cooled down, take it into a food processor or blender and grind it and keep the jar aside.
- In the remaining oil, add chopped dondakaya pieces (Tindora) with turmeric, cover the pan saute them until they are softened.
- When the tindora (dondakaya) pieces are more than 60% cooked, add the chopped tomato pieces and cook covered until everything is softened. No need to cook them until they are mushy, just soft enough to make sure they are cooked.
- Remove this mixture onto a plate and cool it down.
- In the same jar which we used to grind the tempering, add the dondakaya tomato mixture along with salt and pulse again a few times without adding water. Grind it into a coarse mixture for a perfect taste, not too soft.
- Check the taste for salt and spiciness and add more if required. At this stage, If you feel you need more spiciness, add chili flakes or red chili seeds and pulse again. Remove this Dondakaya pachadi into a serving bowl.
- Now in a small tempering pan, heat 2 tsp oil (Use sesame oil for more flavor), and to this, add ½ tsp mustard seeds, ½ tsp urad dal, ½ tsp chana dal, ¼ tsp asafoetida, ¼ tsp turmeric powder, curry leaves and saute for a minute or two until golden brown. Then add chopped onions if using and cilantro and fry a minute and add this tempering to the dondakaya chutney in the serving bowl and mix well before serving.
- Serve this dondakaya chutney with hot white rice and ghee on top for an awesome flavor.
Pro Tips
Please check out these tips to make sure you make this dondakaya pachadi like a pro.
- Always make sure to grind this chutney into a coarse mixture without adding water( or with a just a sprinkle of water) and not a soft puree. That coarse texture gives you an awesome taste and lets you taste all the different flavors in the chutney.
- Any roti pachadi or chutney is tasty only when you add enough chilies. Make sure to add enough as per your taste.
- Make sure to grind the mixture of dals first to make sure they are ground properly before adding the tindora.
- Do not add the chopped onion in final tempering if you are planning to store the chutney for more than a day or two.
Variations and Substitutions
Even though the base recipe is mostly the same in many homes for this chutney, there are always a few variations and substitutions that can be made to suit your own taste. Please check out a few of them below
- In the first tempering, instead of the urad dal and chana dal you can use 1 or 2 tbsp of peanuts to saute in oil and grind.
- Instead of the tomatoes here, you can use tamarind paste or tamarind soaked in hot water without seeds.
- While grinding the chutney, you can also add a handful of cilantro leaves to add the wonderful cilantro flavor to the chutney.
- You can use all red chilies in place of green chilies if you prefer.
- Fenugreek seeds add a subtle flavor in the background which kind of balances the taste of the chutney, hoeever they are optional and can be skipped if you want.
More of Must-Try South Indian Recipes
Check out more of the South Indian Recipes which are a must try
- Tomato pachadi | South Indian Tomato chutney
- South Indian Boiled potato fry | Easy Potato Poriyal
- Cabbage fry Andhra style | Cabbage and green peas poriyal
- Bendakaya Pulusu | Sweet Sour & Spicy Okra Curry
- Brinjal Fry | Vankaya Fry
What to Serve with
Dondakaya pachadi or Tindora chutney is usually served with hot white rice and ghee on top. This can also be served as a side dish with dosa, idli, roti etc..
Storage and Reheating
Dondakaya pachadi usually stays fresh for up to 2 to 3 days in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
Roti pachadi is usually not reheated. Instead, just leave it out on the counter an hour before eating when you want to reuse it.
Recipe
Dondakaya Pachadi Recipe | Tindora Chutney
Ingredients
- 250 gms or 0.5 lb Dondakaya Tindora
- 2 medium-size Tomatoes
- 5 big Garlic cloves
- 5 to 6 green chilies Thai green chilies or serrano
- Salt to taste
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds methi seeds
- 1 tsp split or whole urad dal
- 1 tsp chana dal
- 2 tsp oil
Tempering at the end
- 2 tsp oil
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- ¾ tsp split urad dal
- ¾ tsp chana dal
- 2 red chilies broken into pieces
- ¼ teaspoon asafoetida also called Hing or Inguva, Use gluten-free version if preferred or skip it
- spring of curry leaves
- 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
- 1 to 2 tablespoons of finely chopped onion optional, add only if you are going to consume the chutney within 1 to 2 days
Instructions
Preparation
- Wash the Dondakaya and Tomatoes thoroughly and chop them into pieces. Chop the Tindora into small roundels and dice the tomato into medium size pieces.
- Peel the garlic.
How to make Dondakaya tomato Pachadi
- Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan and add 1 tsp chana dal, 1 tsp urad dal, ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds. Saute them until golden brown for a min or two until you get a nice aroma, Now add peeled garlic cloves and green chilies to saute for a few more seconds until you see the blister marks.
- Now remove this tempering without the oil into a bowl and let it cool down. Once it is cooled down, take it into a food processor or blender and grind it and keep the jar aside.
- In the remaining oil, add chopped dondakaya pieces (Tindora) with turmeric, cover the pan saute them until they are softened.
- When the tindora (dondakaya) pieces are more than 60% cooked, add the chopped tomato pieces and cook them together covered until everything is softened. No need to cook them until they are mushy, just soft enough to make sure they are cooked.
- Remove this mixture onto a plate and cool it down.
- In the same jar which we used to grind the tempering, add the dondakaya tomato mixture along with salt and pulse again a few times without adding water. Grind it into a coarse mixture for a perfect taste, not too soft.
- Check the taste for salt and spiciness and add more if required. At this stage, If you feel you need more spiciness, add chili flakes or red chili seeds and pulse again. Remove this Dondakaya pachadi into a serving bowl.
- Now in a small tempering pan, heat 2 tsp oil (Use sesame oil for more flavor), and to this, add all the ingredients for tempering at the end and saute for a minute or two until golden brown. Then add chopped onions if using and cilantro and fry a minute and add this tempering to the dondakaya chutney in the serving bowl and mix well before serving.
- Serve this dondakaya chutney with hot white rice and ghee on top for an awesome flavor.
Notes
- Add chopped onions to the final tempering as suggested above for additional flavor and texture. But do not add them if you are going to store the chutney for more than 1 to 2 days as they tend to change the taste of the chutney later.
- Grind the chutney to a coarse mixture for an authentic taste.
- Instead of tomato, you can also use ½ to 1 tsp of tamarind paste.
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