Vatha Kuzhambu | Easy Vathal Kuzhambu

Hello everyone. Welcome to my food blog – Spill the Spices. I started this blog to record my tried and successful recipes, hoping it will help some of the newbies who are taking their tiny steps into the kitchen for first time, just like me!

The first recipe I’m going to share is an easy and quick South Indian gravy for rice – vatha kuzhambu. Many of you from the South know what a vatha or vathal kuzhambu is. For the uniniated, vatha kuzhambu is a tamarind based gravy with sambar powder (for the quick version) or vatha kuzhambu podi and vathal (dried berries) like sundakkai vathal (turkey berry) or manathakkali vathal (black night shade) or vegetables like sambar onions (shallots), brinjal or okra (lady’s finger), along with little jaggery to balance the spices and sourness of tamarind. 

My version of vatha kuzhambu is really simple and trust me, it’s much easier than sambar or other kuzhambu recipes, especially for beginners. I have even made this without any vathal or vegetables and it still tastes delicious with rice.

Side dishes for vatha kuzhambu

So next question that would pop up in our mind is – what are the side dishes that we can serve with vatha kuzhambu? Usually it is served with paruppu thogayal or kootu and appalam. My favorite is roasted potato fry like this Chettinad Baby Potato Roast, Urulaikizhangu Mezhukkupuratti (pan-fried potatoes) or South Indian style mashed potatoes (urulaikizhangu podimas). Any thoran/poriyal (vegetable stir-fry with coconut) or mezhukkupurati (pan-fried vegetable) will go along this kuzhambu.

You can find more different recipes for vatha kuzhambu in the blog like this Arachuvitta Vatha Kuzhambu, made with freshly ground spices, my mom’s version of Sundakkai Vatha Kuzhambu and Manathakali Vatha Kuzhambu and Chinna Vengaya (sambar onion) and Poondu (garlic) vatha kuzhambu. If you are interested, you can also check out my recipe for Homemade Vatha Kuzhambu Podi.

Vatha Kuzhambu

Quick and easy South Indian TamBrahm style tangy curry with dried berries or veggies to serve with rice

Print Pin Recipe

Servings 4 people

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon tamarind paste or lemon-sized tamarind
• 3 tablespoon gingelly oil (Indian sesame oil/nallennai)
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon chana dal
• 1 teaspoon whole urad dal
• 2 dried red chillies broken into two
• ¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds (vendhayam/methi seeds)
• ¼ teaspoon asafoetida (hing/ perugayam)
• 8 to 10 curry leaves
• 2 teaspoon manathakkali or sundakkai vathal
• ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
• 3 teaspoon sambar powder
• Salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon grated jaggery
• 2 teaspoon rice flour

Instructions

• Soak tamarind in 2 cups of hot water for 15 minutes. Squeeze the pulp and extract the juice.

  If using tamarind paste, dilute in 2 cups warm water.
• Heat a saucepan or heavy bottom pan in low to medium heat and add the gingelly oil.
• Once the oil is hot. add mustard seeds and let it crackle. Then add chana dal and urad dal.
• Once dals starts to turn golden, add red chillies, asafoetida, fenugreek seeds and half of the curry leaves. Fry for 15 seconds.
• Then add the vathal and fry till it is crisp. Turn off the heat.
• Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder and sambhar powder. Fry the spices for 30 seconds.
• Add the tamarind extract, required salt and combine well.
• Turn on the heat. Bring to boil. Once it starts to boil, simmer  over low to medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes.
• Mix rice flour in 1/2 cup water without lumps. Add rice flour water, jaggery and simmer for another 3-4 minutes in low heat.
• Finally add 1 teaspoon gingelly oil and remaining curry leaves.

Notes

• Take care not to burn the fenugreek seeds as it will give a bitter flavour to the kuzhambu.
• Turning off the heat before adding spices helps to avoid burning the spices.
• Adjust red chilli powder according to your spice preference.
• Jaggery helps to balance the spice, slightly bitter and tangy flavours.
• Rice flour is added to thicken the gravy. If you prefer a thinner consistency, you can skip adding rice flour.
• Instead of vathal, you can use vegetables like small onions (chinna vengayam), brinjal or okra (bhindi/vendakkai).
• Vathal is already salted, so adjust salt accordingly.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: South Indian Curry