I am just back from an awesome holiday at Kerala! Kerala is so scenic and beautiful, aptly named as God's Own Country 🙂 I am under the heavy influence of my vacation and hence a Kerala Recipe - the one we love the most.  Theeyal is a Kerala cuisine based curry which is very easy to prepare yet very tasty. There are many alterations to this recipe making it even more delicious. Ulli Theyal, Vegetable Theeyal, Potato Theeyal and the list goes on. I am going to stick to the basic recipe and one can always add any vegetable to enhance its taste.
To make Theeyal
What I used -Â
To make a masala paste -Â
- Fresh coconut scrapped, 1 cup
- Cumin Seeds, 2 tsp
- Dhania Seeds, 2 tsp
- Black Peppercorns, 2 tsp
- Red Chillies, 6 no.s
- Turmeric Powder, a pinch
- Coconut Oil, 2 teaspoons
To make the Theeyal -Â
- Onion, 1 medium sized
- Tamarind Paste, 2-3Â tsp
- Red Chilli Powder, 1 tsp
- Turmeric Powder, a pinch
- Salt, as required
- Coconut Oil, 5-6 tsp
- Mustard Seeds, 1 tsp
- Urad Dal, 2Â tsp
- Asafoetida, 2 pinches
- Red Chillies, 2 no.s
- Coriander Leaves, to garnish
- Curry Leaves, as required
- Water, as required
How I made -Â
- Heat oil in a frying pan. Add all the ingredients from list (1) once the oil is hot.
- Keep frying them until they are roasted and there are no traces of oil. Keep aside to cool.
- Grind the fried ingredients into a smooth paste by adding little water.
- Take a heavy bottom pan and heat coconut oil from list (2).
- Add the mustard seeds, red chilies, urad dal, asafoetida and curry leaves.
- Once the mustard seeds splutter, add onions. Saute until onions are golden fried.
- Add the tamarind paste and the ground masala.
- Add turmeric powder, salt and red chili powder.
- Let it come to boil. Theeyal is ready when oil starts to leave from the edges of curry.
- Garnish the curry with coriander leaves. Serve hot. This tastes best for plain steamed rice , dosa, chapathi and idli.
Note:
- Keep the pan closed after step 8 until done. The curry might boil too fast leaving you with small burns.
- Any vegetables can be added to this curry as a variation.
- Coconut oil enhances the flavor of this curry. Any vegetable oil can be used in its place.
- Adjust spiciness as per preference.
PS - Excuse the poor quality photos. Will update the post with proper pictures and step-by-step pictures soon.
Parul Singhal
I love karela..
CHCooks
🙂 🙂
srividhya
This is one of my fav recipe. Hope you had a great trip.
CHCooks
Yes I had Sri 🙂 More about it soon.
dreamzandclouds
I loved Kerela when I visited it in 2014....and I made a lil' promise to myself that I will definitely go back again 🙂
CHCooks
Yes yes, Kerala is so beautiful no number of trips would be enough.. 🙂
dreamzandclouds
🙂 🙂
Freda @ Aromatic essence
That sounds very flavorful 🙂 I've heard so much about Kerala , hope to go there once Atleast 🙂
CHCooks
I really hope you get to visit Kerala sometime.. its awesome 🙂
Traditionally Modern Food
Theeyal s my favorite side for appam..yum yum
CHCooks
I should try it for appam 🙂 thanks for the suggestion vidya 🙂
Traditionally Modern Food
Theeyal s my favorite side for appam..yum yum
CHCooks
🙂 🙂
Love Served Daily
Very interesting
CHCooks
🙂
Lynz Real Cooking
Looks so good and very interesting ingredients, yumm
CHCooks
Thank you Lynn! 🙂
Lynz Real Cooking
🙂 xx
CHCooks
🙂
kushi
Interesting! Looks so delicious 🙂
CHCooks
Thank you Kushi 🙂
Bharani
looks yummy and love the flavor of coconut oil 🙂
CHCooks
yeah I love the flavor of coconut oil too! thanks Bharani 🙂
Chitra Jagadish
Sounds and looks delicious. ...
CHCooks
Thanks a lot Chitra 🙂